"And now, my brethren, I wish from the inmost part of my heart, yea, with great anxiety even unto pain, that ye would hearken unto my words, and cast off your sins, and not procrastinate the day of your repentance;
But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering;
Having faith on the Lord; having a hope that ye shall receive eternal life; having the love of God always in your hearts, that ye may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his rest."
Alma 13:27-29
I don't really like anxiety in general, especially the "even unto pain" part, but I do admire Alma a lot here for caring so much for these people and working with them to explain the gospel.
One thing I wanted to call out here is the phrase "that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear" ... in 1 Nephi 3:7 we learn that God "giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them," which we usually interpret to mean that we should be able to handle whatever the world throws at us. And specifically here we read in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that God "will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
I don't think that there is a contradiction here, but rather that we have to participate in that protection process. If we don't watch or pray or try to prevent or resist sin, then at some point we are digging outselves into a hole that gets harder and harder to escape, and eventually one we won't be able to crawl out of without massive external assistance. But if we work on having the spirit with us and maintain that connection with God, then that's when his promises work, when we maintain his influence in our lives and subject ourselves to his power, so that he can gather us and heal us as he longs to do.
Today, let's work on keeping that Spirit, and love, and hope alive as we maintain a connection and develop our relationship with God.
No comments:
Post a Comment