Finding Comfort

We live in times of great sorrow at the hands of others. Evil men have been allowed to take power by the people in their respective jurisdictions, and we see the pain they cause every day on the news, and at times, in our own lives.

This has been troubling my mind, however, as I've prayed and studied the scriptures, I've taken comfort in some verses found in the Book of Mormon. In Alma, chapter 31, we learn of a dissenting group known as the Zoramites, who were led by a man named Zoram, who had turned to idolatry rather than the correct principles they had been taught by prophets of God. Alma, one of the greatest missionaries in the Book of Mormon and also a high priest of the church, takes a group with him for a missionary effort to try and bring these people back to the gospel of Christ which they had been part of.

When they get to Jershon, where the Zoramites lived, they were dumbfounded at how bad things had gotten in Jershon. One one day a week, they would, one by one, stand on a tall stage, and loudly, publicly, repeat a single, scripted prayer, thanking God for making them better than others and thanking him for sending everyone who wasn't born to them to hell. They had shunned the poor in Jershon, not allowing them to worship God at all. The poor were esteemed as dross and treated like second-class citezens. In other areas, the poor were taken care of by those who had more to spare, and all were invited to worship God.

Prior to this, Alma had worked tirelessly to teach the gospel to many people. He had seen firsthand how it had blessed the lives of the individuals who joined the church. It broke his heart to see people of his own nation and culture to have turned away from the gospel and then despise the poor of them. Before proceeding further, with what I must assume a great temptation to turn away and just go home, he prays to the Lord. The words he speaks in this prayer can apply to us who live in a world filled with so much evil:

And he lifted up his voice to heaven, and cried, saying: O, how long, O Lord, wilt thou suffer that thy servants shall dwell here below in the flesh, to behold such gross wickedness among the children of men?Behold, O God, they cry unto thee, and yet their hearts are swallowed up in their pride. Behold, O God, they cry unto thee with their mouths, while they are puffed up, even to greatness, with the vain things of the world.
Behold, O my God, their costly apparel, and their ringlets, and their bracelets, and their ornaments of gold, and all their precious things which they are ornamented with; and behold, their hearts are set upon them, and yet they cry unto thee and say—We thank thee, O God, for we are a chosen people unto thee, while others shall perish.
Yea, and they say that thou hast made it known unto them that there shall be no Christ.
O Lord God, how long wilt thou suffer that such wickedness and infidelity shall be among this people? O Lord, wilt thou give me strength, that I may abear with mine infirmities. For I am infirm, and such wickedness among this people doth pain my soul.
O Lord, my heart is exceedingly sorrowful; wilt thou comfort my soul ain Christ. O Lord, wilt thou grant unto me that I may have strength, that I may suffer with patience these bafflictions which shall come upon me, because of the iniquity of this people.
O Lord, wilt thou comfort my soul, and give unto me success, and also my fellow laborers who are with me—yea, Ammon, and Aaron, and Omner, and also Amulek and Zeezrom, and also my btwo sons—yea, even all these wilt thou comfort, O Lord. Yea, wilt thou comfort their souls in Christ.
Wilt thou grant unto them that they may have strength, that they may abear their afflictions which shall come upon them because of the iniquities of this people...Now it came to pass that when Alma had said these words, that he ^aclapped his ^bhands upon all them who were with him. And behold, as he clapped his hands upon them, they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
And after that they did separate themselves one from another, ataking no thought for themselves what they should eat, or what they should drink, or what they should put on.

And the Lord provided for them that they should hunger not, neither should they thirst; yea, and he also gave them strength, that they should suffer no manner of aafflictions, save it were swallowed up in the joy of Christ. Now this was according to the prayer of Alma; and this because he prayed in faith.


Alma chapter 31, where this is borrowed, can be found at http://lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/31?lang=eng


May we allow the Lord to bless us and fill us with his spirit, that we may suffer no manner of afflictions and not be heavily burdened by the evil which exists in our world. These things I say in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.