Alma’s Wish
I wish I were an angel. I wish I could travel everywhere and speak with God’s powerful voice. I would tell everyone to turn away from their sins. I would tell every person about God’s plan to save them. I would tell them to turn from their sins and come to our God. Then there would be no more sadness anywhere on earth.
Learning to Be Content
But I am just a man. It is wrong for me to wish for this. I should be happy with what the Lord has given me. I should not want to change God’s plan. He is fair and just. I know that God gives people what they want. If they want death, they will get death. If they want life, they will get life. God lets people choose. He makes decisions that cannot be changed. People can choose to be saved or to be destroyed. Everyone can choose between good and evil. If someone does not know the difference between good and evil, they are innocent. But if someone knows good from evil, God gives them what they want. They can choose good or evil, life or death, happiness or guilt.
I know these things. So why should I want more than what God has called me to do? Why should I want to be an angel who speaks to everyone on earth? The Lord gives every nation people who can teach in their own language. He wisely gives them what he knows they should have. So the Lord makes wise choices. He does what is fair and right.
Alma’s Joy in His Work
I know what the Lord has told me to do, and I am proud of it. I am not proud of myself. I am proud of what the Lord asked me to do. My greatest joy is that I might help someone turn away from their sins. That makes me happy. When I see many of my brothers and sisters truly sorry for their sins and coming to the Lord their God, I feel great joy. Then I remember what the Lord has done for me. He heard my prayer. I remember how he showed me mercy. I also remember when my ancestors were trapped. I know for sure that the Lord saved them. That is when he started his church. The Lord God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saved them. I have always remembered when my ancestors were trapped. The same God who saved them from the Egyptians saved them. That same God started his church among them. That same God called me to teach his word to these people. He has helped me do well, and that makes me very happy.
Joy in His Brothers’ Success
But I am not just happy about my own work. I am even happier because my brothers who went to the land of Nephi have also done well.
They have worked very hard. They have helped many people. Their reward will be great. When I think about how well my brothers have done, I feel so much joy. It almost feels like my spirit leaves my body.
I pray that God will let my brothers sit in the Kingdom of God. I also pray for all the people they helped. I pray that they will stay there forever and praise him. May God make this happen just as I have asked. Amen.
Influences
- 29:1 — 1 Thessalonians 4:16 (KJV)For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
- 29:3 — Luke 3:14 (KJV)And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.
- 29:4 — Romans 1:16 (KJV)For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
- 29:5 — 1 John 4:6 (KJV)We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
- 29:5 — Romans 9:11 (KJV)(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
- 29:5 — 1 Corinthians 3:22 (KJV)Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are your's;
- 29:8 — Colossians 4:1 (KJV)Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.
- 29:10 — John 12:27 (KJV)Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.
- 29:10 — 2 Timothy 1:4 (KJV)Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy;
- 29:13 — 1 Corinthians 7:15 (KJV)But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace.
- 29:13 — 2 Timothy 1:9 (KJV)Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
- 29:16 — Matthew 25:40 (KJV)And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
- 29:17 — Luke 13:29 (KJV)And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.