"And Amulek said unto him: Yea, if it be according to the Spirit of the Lord, which is in me; for I shall say nothing which is contrary to the Spirit of the Lord. And Zeezrom said unto him: Behold, here are six onties of silver, and all these will I give thee if thou wilt deny the existence of a Supreme Being."
Alma 11:22
This verse intrigues me because I wonder why someone would try this. Why does it matter so much to anyone else if someone believes in Christ? And of course the overall question when it comes to things like this is " I think sometimes we do things like that when we're overconfident in our own opinions and we want to prove someone else wrong, or corrupt, or prove that they aren't better and definitely don't know more than we do.
Zeezrom turns into a good guy later in the story, but right here when he is in bad guy mode, he seems to just be focused on tripping up the good guys... catching them in a lie, showing the people that they aren't really sincere, or whatever.
In Moroni 1:2-3, Moroni is talking about the people who will put anyone to death that isn't willing to deny Christ. I think that is the other factor here... why doesn't it matter so much that we *don't * deny God? Why not get rich here (6 onties was a lot of money), or live among other (Moroni), or save yourself from the Fiery Furnace (Shadrach Meshach and Abednego), etc.?
I think the ultimate answer here is that it matters because part of what we have to learn in life is putting faith before fear. We have to learn to trust God, no matter what. If we deny him because of fear, or greed, or loneliness, or whatever other reason, then we're getting our priorities mixed up. We're forgetting the lessons of the scriptures... that those that stand with God are more numerous and powerful than those that stand against him, even if we can't see it.
Today, let's remember to place God first in our priorities, and worry about *his* will before anyone else's, including our own. As we put him first, everything else in our lives will work better, and we'll be focusing on things that lead to happiness and peace.
Alma 11:22
This verse intrigues me because I wonder why someone would try this. Why does it matter so much to anyone else if someone believes in Christ? And of course the overall question when it comes to things like this is " I think sometimes we do things like that when we're overconfident in our own opinions and we want to prove someone else wrong, or corrupt, or prove that they aren't better and definitely don't know more than we do.
Zeezrom turns into a good guy later in the story, but right here when he is in bad guy mode, he seems to just be focused on tripping up the good guys... catching them in a lie, showing the people that they aren't really sincere, or whatever.
In Moroni 1:2-3, Moroni is talking about the people who will put anyone to death that isn't willing to deny Christ. I think that is the other factor here... why doesn't it matter so much that we *don't * deny God? Why not get rich here (6 onties was a lot of money), or live among other (Moroni), or save yourself from the Fiery Furnace (Shadrach Meshach and Abednego), etc.?
I think the ultimate answer here is that it matters because part of what we have to learn in life is putting faith before fear. We have to learn to trust God, no matter what. If we deny him because of fear, or greed, or loneliness, or whatever other reason, then we're getting our priorities mixed up. We're forgetting the lessons of the scriptures... that those that stand with God are more numerous and powerful than those that stand against him, even if we can't see it.
Today, let's remember to place God first in our priorities, and worry about *his* will before anyone else's, including our own. As we put him first, everything else in our lives will work better, and we'll be focusing on things that lead to happiness and peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment