Strugglings and Rest

I was impressed today as I studied the book of Enos at how intensely he struggled and searched and worked for the blessings from the Lord.  He had a “wrestle” before God and “cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication.”  He “poured out [his] whole soul unto God” and described it as “struggling in the spirit.”  After he initially received answers from the Lord, Enos “prayed unto him with many long strugglings” and he “prayed and labored with all diligence” in behalf of his brethren.  He described their efforts to do missionary work in these terms: “For at the present our strugglings were vain in restoring them to the true faith.”  He said again that he did “cry unto God.”  All of this language give us a sense of the serious striving and struggling that he did. Even after he initially received a remission of his own sins, he wrestled mightily in prayer and earnest striving to receive the blessings from the Lord that he sought.  He is a powerful example of persistence and heartfelt seeking that inspires us to keep struggling and striving more diligently.

               In his account, it seems that verse 17 is a turning point and really the climax of the story.  After all that struggling to obtain blessings from the Lord for himself and others, and after another fervent plea, he recorded, “He covenanted with me that he would bring them forth unto the Lamanites in his own due time. And I, Enos, knew it would be according to the covenant which he had made; wherefore my soul did rest.”  Finally, he was able to obtain not just the desires he sought, but he also found peace and rest in the Lord.  After this verse he didn’t record any more of the strugglings he had but focused on the rest the Lord had given him: “And I soon go to the place of my rest, which is with my Redeemer; for I know that in him I shall rest.”  His story shows us how to obtain both blessings from the Lord and how we gain peace in Him.  Through his diligence and persistent prayers he received from the Lord according to his desires.  And Enos’s peace came because of the covenant the Lord made with him; it was the covenant that took away worry and brought him confidence and rest.  For us surely we can have the same rest because of our covenants with Him.  Despite the struggles we go through and the worries we have for the future and those we love, rest and peace come because of the promises the Lord offers us through our covenants. 

             When Enos first heard the voice of the Lord and was commended by Him, God said that it was done “Because of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen.”  But then later after he had obtained rest from the Lord, Enos wrote, “I, Enos, went about among the people of Nephi, prophesying of things to come, and testifying of the things which I had heard and seen.”  It’s hard to tell exactly what he was referring to when speaking of what he had “heard and seen,” but clearly there as a progression there since after his first struggle with the Lord he had not heard or seen.  By these later verses he had indeed heard the voice of the Lord and seen the hand of God in his own life and thus could testify to the people that he had seen and heard and knew for himself of the “joy of the saints” for those who believe in Christ.