Two Lessons from Alma 29

One of principles that Alma’s great soliloquy of Alma 29 teaches us is where true joy comes from.  He started out by expressing this desire: “O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!”  This was certainly a righteous desire, and yet he knew that he should be “content with the things which the Lord hath allotted” to him (v3).  Rather than focus on his inability to personally take the gospel to the whole world, he turned his thoughts to the great missionary experiences that had already taken place.  He reflected, “When I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember what the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me” (v10).  

Alma realized that instead of thinking about what he could not personally accomplish, he needed to turn his focus to the great blessings of missionary success that the Lord had already given him.  He had been traveling among the people as a missionary for the past seven years in many Nephite cities including Zarahemla, Gideon, Melek, Ammonihah, and Sidom.  Though he had faced great difficulties—especially at Ammonihah—he had also experienced great missionary successes.  Of his labors in Zarahemla, he said, “My joy cometh over them after wading through much affliction and sorrow” (Alma 7:5).  To the people of Gideon he was able to declare, “My soul doth exceedingly rejoice, because of the exceeding diligence and heed which ye have given unto my word” (Alma 7:26).  In Melek when he preached there, “they were baptized throughout all the land” (Alma 8:5).  Though most eventually rejected his message at Ammonihah, he was also able to personally take part in the powerful conversions of both Amulek and Zeezrom, among others.  After fleeing to Sidom, he and Amulek successfully “established the church at Sidom” such that “the people were checked as to the pride of their hearts, and began to humble themselves before God” (Alma 15:7).  As Alma reflected on these great blessings as a missionary that the Lord had given him, he turned his original feelings of not having the capability that he wanted to feelings of gratitude and joy: “That same God hath called me by a holy calling, to preach the word unto this people, and hath given me much success, in the which my joy is full” (v13).

             One of Alma’s lesson for us then is that joy comes from remembering the great blessings that the Lord has already given us instead of focusing on what we haven’t yet been given.  The other lesson is simply that great joy comes from preaching the gospel.  He declared, “This is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy” (v9).  As the Lord declared to us in our dispensation, “And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!” (D&C 18:15).  Alma, who had spent many years of his life trying to find happiness as “a very wicked and idolatrous man” had learned our greatest joys come from seeing others come unto the Savior (Mosiah 27:8).  As he saw all of the Lamanites who had been converted from the missionary labors of the sons of Mosiah, he wrote, “But I do not joy in my own success alone, but my joy is more full because of the success of my brethren, who have been up to the land of Nephi….  When I think of the success of these my brethren my soul is carried away, even to the separation of it from the body, as it were, so great is my joy” (v14, 16).  Surely that would be Alma’s message to us if he were to speak to us today: if we want to find great joy in our lives then we need to simply share the gospel with others.