Alma 32 contains one of the best lectures on Faith that I know of. However, instead of repeating that lecture I’m going to talk less about the formula for how to develop Faith and talk a little bit more about what this lesson teaches us about discernment. In a world where contradictory messages digitally fly around telling us what to believe and what is true, how is anyone to know the truth about anything? Discernment is the key that will help us understand and know what is true. Alma teaches us how to discern if a “seed” is good in these chapters.
He says that we can know if something is true or good (to me this means we can discern between what is good and evil), by how it affects us. A good seed will “. . .begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.”
I’ve thought all week about these words. ". . .it beginneth to enlarge my soul, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me." Enlarge, enlighten, delicious. We learn here that those things that enlarge our souls, enlighten our minds and understanding, and those things that are enjoyable, enticing, pleasant, exquisite, and delicious to us, are good. This is really key here. And I don’t know if many of us recognize it, but these scriptures are telling us three key ways that we can know if something is good.
Do the things we spend our time on enlarge our souls? Are we turning outward, and expanding our souls and our worlds? Or are we contracting and shrinking our souls and withdrawing from the world? Are we encouraged to care for and about others? Is whatever we’re choosing to spend our time on expanding our Faith, Hope, and Charity? What about enlightening our understanding? Is our understanding of the world, others, or ourselves being illuminated? Is whatever we’re reading, watching, or doing shedding light on or helping us understand more intellectually? Are we expanding our minds and our intelligence and our understanding? If so, that thing is good. What about being delicious to us? Are the ways we are spending our time, energy, and self delicious to us? Does it make us feel good? Does it make others feel good? Is it delicious? Again, is it expanding us, or contracting us?
Using a seed as a way to discern truth or good is such an interesting comparison, because I think it’s something that we all have experience with, and it’s definitely very clear whether or not a seed is good. When you plant a garden seed, let’s say in a little cup on your windowsill, you have to take care of it a certain way or you know it won’t grow (ie, if you don’t water it at all for example). But if you follow the rules for that seed, giving it light and water as required, if that seed is good, it will sprout. It will begin to grow. It will begin to expand. If the seed isn’t good, it won’t do anything! This is a normal phenomenon. Seed packets even say on them their germination rates, how much of the packet you can expect to be good seeds, and how much you can expect to be bad seeds.
So I guess these chapters kind of highlighted for me the necessity, when it is not clear if something is good or bad right away, for us to experiment a little (don’t take that out of context, I’m definitely not advocating for trying everything because how else can you know if it’s good or bad). If we can’t clearly discern at first if something is good, we experiment. We try the idea out. We try it on for size. And if it begins to grow, we know that it is good. If it enlarges and expands our souls and our minds, we have further evidence that the thing is good. “Yea, because it is light; and whatsoever is light, is good, because it is discernible, therefore ye must know that it is good . . .”
Something interesting that is also pointed out in this parable and in these scriptures is that good seeds take work for them to grow. Even if they’re good, they still take work and effort on our part to manifest their goodness to us. So, even ideas, like seeds, will take nourishment, work, diligence, and care for us to be able to see whether or not they grow, whether or not they’re good.
So, they preach this really good sermon about what it means to have faith, and how you can discern good things from bad things. Then they testify of Christ. They spend a whole bunch of time testifying about Christ, and the Atonment, and the Plan of Salvation, Christ’s Redemption, and prayer. The response of the people to this is actually kind of funny: “And it came to pass that after the more popular part of the Zoramites had consulted together concerning the words which had been preached unto them, they were angry because of the word, for it did destroy their craft; therefore they would not hearken unto the words.”
The people get together and talk about what they said, and after consulting together they decide to get mad. They’re mad because the ability to discern right and wrong and good and bad actually destroys the hold they have on the people so they don’t like it. So instead of listening to reason and teaching people how to expand their souls and minds, they just go out and “stir up the Zoramites to anger.” They talked about stirring the people up to anger a few times, which is really frustrating. They deliberately didn’t want people to understand how to discern these things for themselves.
Another part of the reading that I really liked was how Alma and Amulek boldly taught that prayer has more to do with what happens in our hearts than what happens on a public platform. They talk about praying to God all day in our hearts. “Therefore may God grant unto you, my brethren, that ye may begin to exercise your faith unto repentance, that ye begin to call upon his holy name, that he would have mercy upon you; Yea, cry unto him for mercy; for he is mighty to save. Yea, humble yourselves, and continue in prayer unto him. Cry unto him when ye are in your afields, yea, over all your flocks.” Pray about your finances and the temporal things you need. “Cry unto him in your houses, yea, over all your household, both morning, mid-day, and evening.” Pray for your home, the things you own, and your families.
“Yea, cry unto him against the power of your enemies.” Pray for the ability to withstand your enemies, and other places in scripture encourage us explicitly to pray for our enemies, bless them that curse us, and pray for those who despitefully use us and persecute us. “Yea, cry unto him against the devil, who is an enemy to all righteousness.” Pray for spiritual strength and against the powers of evil. “Cry unto him over the crops of your fields, that ye may prosper in them. Cry over the flocks of your fields, that they may increase.” Again pray for your finances, job, and temporal blessings. “But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness. Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you.” So, even when you aren’t praying, let your heart always be in prayer for your welfare and the welfare of those around you.
So, to conclude, we have been given a formula that can help us discern what is good, and what is bad. We are told that all things that are good come from God, and we are told also that goodness is light and truth. Things that are good and true are of God. There are three ways we're told we can recognize them. 1) They enlarge our souls, 2) They enlighten our understanding, and 3) They are delicious to us. We would do well to consider the ways and places we spend our time and energy and examine them to make sure that the things that we choose surround ourselves with, to do, and to be and are expanding our souls and minds. We would also do well to understand that “the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray.” (2 Nephi 32:8). We are taught here that we should always pray. We should pray about everything that concerns us. We should pray about our welfare, and the welfare of our families, and our financial and temporal well-being, and when we are not praying we should still have a prayer in our hearts.
Come Follow Me (Alma 32-35)
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