Inasmuch as Ye Keep My Commandments

Alma 36 – Inasmuch as ye keep my commandments

I can’t walk away from this morning’s reading without some comment, as this chapter is so deeply personal.  For one, I relate to it on a personal level.  I was in a dark abyss.  I wasn’t going about destroying the church as I had enough thread of a testimony to realize that was not wise.  However, I was destroying myself by not keeping the commandments.  I was also suffering the consequences.  I was not prospering in the land.  And number two, if I ever have a child who wants to change, this is the chapter I would refer to her as a starting point in the Book of Mormon.  There are many wonderful places, but this is easy to understand and relate to.

What does it mean to prosper in the land?  Does the Lord want all of us to be rich with money and stuff?  Let’s examine that a little further.  In the next chapter of Alma it says in Alma 37:13:  “O remember, remember, my son Helaman, how strict are the commandments of God. And he said: If ye will keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land—but if ye keep not his commandments ye shall be cut off from his presence.”  From whose presence will we be cut off?  The Lord whose commandments we have been told to keep.  Prospering in the land means to have the Lord’s presence with us.  When we have his presence, we are guided by his Spirit to know the right thing to do.  When that happens, we can have faith that the experiences we are having are for our good and experience, and not for punishment.  In Doctrine and Covenants 122:7, the Lord told Joseph Smith as he was a prisoner in Liberty Jail and suffering a lot – “And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.”

So does prospering in the land mean we will cease to have problems?  Not even!  We will have trials and tribulations.  We signed up and even cheered for the opportunity in the preexistence!  But we can rest assured that those trials will bring us closer to our Heavenly Father just as Joseph Smith’s trials did for him.  They sanctified him, just as our trials will sanctify us, if we choose.  The real test is to keep our eye on the “ball” so to speak.  To remember that this life is a testing ground to prove our worthiness to dwell with our Heavenly Father throughout the eternities with our families and loved ones with us. 

So my marching orders for this day are to think on the commandments of God.  Am I strictly obedient?  Is there room for improvement?  If I were called home this very day, would I hear the words “well done”?  That is the goal.