Wilt thou comfort my soul in Christ

While I did listen to scriptures this morning while unloading the dishwasher, I was struck by my reading last night in Alma 31 and wanted to share thoughts from there. In this chapter Alma and a team of selected brethren from the church have gone on a mission to the Zoramites. Here they find the people offering the same vain and prideful prayer to be heard and seen of men, but then going about the week giving no further thought to the Lord. This causes Alma and those with him great sorrow on behalf of the hardness of the hearts of the people.

Alma says things such as the following to describe how he is feeling:

• "O Lord, wilt thou give me strength...
  • that I may bear with mine infirmities. For I am infirm, and such wickedness among this people doth pain my soul."
  • that I may suffer with patience these afflictions which shall come upon me, because of the iniquity of this people
• "O Lord, my heart is exceedingly sorrowful"
• "O Lord, wilt thou comfort my soul in Christ (and give unto me success, and also my fellow laborers who are with me"

I think many of us can find ourselves feeling similar feelings for a variety of reasons. Perhaps, it is seeing the suffering around us because of a bad economy and drug addiction. Perhaps, health challenges facing us or a loved one have our hear aching for blessings of healing or the strength to carry on. Maybe, it's running into the same obstacles over and over again in life and seemingly nothing ever works to improve the problems leaving one feeling defective or unworthy of blessings from the Lord to help overcome these challenges. This can certainly give us pause to recognize that everyone is dealing with things in their own life. 

In the quiet heart is hidden sorrow that the eye can't see

What I love in this chapter is at the end there is a beautiful lesson. Alma gives those with him priesthood blessings and the scripture states that they were blessed not to hunger or thirst and given strength that the affliction they faced would be swallowed up in the joy of Christ. This makes perfect sense to me from the perspective of designing fitness programs for people. It would do no good to take away resistance, or to have too heavy a load. There is a sweet spot that is challenging and causes growth. When we call upon the Lord for the strength to carry on, He will grant us the strength we need, but not remove the burden. He may carry some of the load, so the burden feels light, but still leaves us with that portion we need to push against to better ourselves.

If anyone is up to sharing some challenges they are facing and could use prayers of help with, please let us know in the comments below. Also, I'd love to hear stories of how the Lord has helped strengthen you in your trials.

Be strong!