Alma the Original Prayer Warrior

As a new semester has begun we have been asked as students to review this week’s scripture study and share our thoughts and impressions. I have chosen this blog format again and hope you are enjoying the experience with me.

This week’s scripture study included Alma Chapters 30-35. We compare prayers in these chapters. First, the Zoramite prayer that is by rote and insincere. This prayer is orchestrated and repeated by each of them, the exact same prayer ending with what they do and don't believe as well as self-proclaiming they are chosen and holy. Then we compare Alma's very sincere prayer that follows what he witnesses, where he expresses to the Lord all that distresses him. He speaks to the Lord, expressing his sorrow for the wickedness of the Zoramites, he is pained in his soul. He pleads for comfort for himself as well as his fellow laborers. He asks for strength, power, wisdom and success. He has love for these people in spite of the fact that they are wicked and he understands the great challenge that lies ahead in sharing the gospel with them. He has faith in the Lord, his prayer is specific and sincere. In Alma's prayer he shows us how we can converse with the Lord, how we can speak to him of our feelings. He shares his worries and makes suggestions on how to deal with the problems that he anticipates in teaching them, including love and compassion for the sinner he is praying for the ability to help.

This prayer gives us an incredible example to follow for our own prayer conversations. We should be having a two-way experience when we are praying to our Father in Heaven. We should have input and direction that we are asking the Lord to confirm and assist us with. If we come the Lord with only expectation that He needs to rescue us or fix our problems, what does He have to work with? We need to do our part first, come prepared with and outline, possible solutions and homework put into finding an answer. Once we have searched and studied, we bring those ideas to the Lord for confirmation and direction. He will do is part and the Spirit will direct our path and show us the way. Then we follow through with faith and do what He has shown us we need to do. Alma's prayer reminds us to love the very people that are hardest to love and pray for, our adversaries. The people around us who are difficult or contrary, the ones who seem to have no love left for the Lord. The Savior has asked us to love our enemies and Alma shows us exactly how to do this.

I love this program, I love the insights I am gaining by taking a deeper look into the scriptures I am reading. There are so many tools and videos that help me see things in a new way. I love that I am able to continue to learn and grow in this gospel. I love seeing how we can apply the scriptures to our life, here and now. I can see that the examples the Lord uses are specifically shared in the scriptures so that we can see the parallel in our own lives today and be inspired and given direction. I am gaining the ability to see the bigger picture and it's awesome. In the past it has been hard for me to read a scripture and figure out how this makes sense today, how it applies to my life specifically. But I am learning to "dig deeper" and see things with a new perspective, a perspective that I needed so much. This is a process and I am not there yet, I have the rest of this earthly life to get there. This opportunity is once in a lifetime, and I am so grateful I am on this Pathway journey.