Alma 38:2-5 -- On Looking, Praying, and Trusting

"And now, my son, I trust that I shall have great joy in you, because of your steadiness and your faithfulness unto God; for as you have commenced in your youth to look to the Lord your God, even so I hope that you will continue in keeping his commandments; for blessed is he that endureth to the end.
I say unto you, my son, that I have had great joy in thee already, because of thy faithfulness and thy diligence, and thy patience and thy long-suffering among the people of the Zoramites.
For I know that thou wast in bonds; yea, and I also know that thou wast stoned for the word’s sake; and thou didst bear all these things with patience because the Lord was with thee; and now thou knowest that the Lord did deliver thee.
And now my son, Shiblon, I would that ye should remember, that as much as ye shall put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions, and ye shall be lifted up at the last day."
Alma 38:2-5


I like the connection here between looking to the Lord and trusting him, and being delivered. I don't think that kind of faith is easy. It takes practive, and observation, and learning more about ourselves and about the Lord. It takes prayer and developing a relationship with the Lord. So, not making light of it like it was a genie and a lamp... but faith does work, if it is faith in the Lord and his gospel, and if we are working at it, like the man who asked Christ to help him with his unbelief. And it IS something that we can learn, if we don't feel like we have it.

God doesn't set us down here and give us commandments and make them impossible to fulfill. He also didn't make us as static beings that can never change. He gives us power, and the ability to change. So if we lack faith, let's pray for it and work for it. If we are awful at prayer, then let's try little by little to develop the habit. If we hang in there and keep working at it, our spiritual senses will develop, and we will feel that connection come.

Today, let's be steady and faithful and look to the Lord, and work with him.