A Blast From the Past

Here's another long-ago entry from my journal for your reading pleasure. . . {I hope}

Don't tease me and call me names after reading it ;)

. . . .

September 23, 2008

So. . . here's the thing. The scriptures are awesome! :) Who'da thunk. I was reading Alma 32 like I have many a time, but this time the Lord opened my eyes and I understand something I never thought of before.

It talks of "believing" in the word to the point where you "plant the seed" in your heart. Alma is teaching this to the poor and therefore humble people in the land of Zoram (the Zoramites) because they have been shunned from the synagogues and told they could not worship anywhere else. Now I don't know about you. . . but if I went to go to church on Sunday and there by the door were two big, hairy, thick guards who wouldn't let me in because my dress wasn't expensive enough. . . I would not be a happy camper. Also-- if someone with authority came up to me and told me that I could only pray on Sunday and not only that, but that I had to say a certain prayer. . . I would likely freak and flip my lid. THAT is what happened to the Zoramite people.

Alma taught them that the Lord wants his people to worship him daily and with prayers from their hearts. He then preached of the necessity of faith, repentance, and the need to be baptized. That's where the idea of "believing" something changes into "knowing" something. Alma suggested that we all plant the seed of the word of God in our hearts-- nourishing it until it beareth fruit. . . which is good ;). Then we will KNOW it is true and good.

"Faith is believing in things which are not seen, which are true". We can not presume to really KNOW something until we have exercised our faith regarding that thing. The Lord gives us the agency to choose for ourselves the path we will choose, and so it only makes sense that he provides us a way to determine for ourselves if something will benefit or inhibit our spirituality. Plant the seed. Experiment on it. Have faith, and reap the fruit. If the fruit is good, you will no longer doubt or question it. You now KNOW.

I always wondered the difference between the people who said "I know" in their testimonies rather than "I believe". The folks who can stand up in front of a room full of other folks and boldly testify on the power of prayer; or tithing; or the Atonement; or temples; or their Great-Aunt Sue's homemade pie, have undergone the work of gaining a fervent testimony of it. Each of us can, too, if we only do as Alma instructs and trust on the Lord.