Put Their Trust in God

As my first mission president was preparing to return home with his wife, I remember that he expressed a desire to teach the missionaries one more thing. And he told me that what he wanted them to really learn was contained in these words from Alma to his son: “And now, O my son Helaman, behold, thou art in thy youth, and therefore, I beseech of thee that thou wilt hear my words and learn of me; for I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day” (Alma 36:3). In other words, he wanted us to learn to trust the Lord in all our trials. In the same chapter Alma also bore witness that this had been the case for him: “And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me” (Alma 36:27). This appears to have been one thing that Alma really wanted his sons to know before he departed mortality, for he said as well to Shiblon, “And now my son, Shiblon, I would that ye should remember, that as much as ye shall put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions, and ye shall be lifted up at the last day” (Alma 38:5). I have to think that this was a message that was passed down to Alma from his father Alma who learned this in a dramatic way in the city of Helam. Telling that story, Mormon commented, “Nevertheless—whosoever putteth his trust in him the same shall be lifted up at the last day. Yea, and thus it was with this people” (Mosiah 23:22). They were miraculously delivered from the Lamanites because they put their trust in God, and this must have been a story that Alma (the Elder) told his children often. And so, Alma (the Younger) passed that along to his children, bearing witness that he had experienced the truth of it as well himself: whoever puts their trust in God will be delivered.

                Helaman clearly learned this lesson from his grandfather and father well and put it into use. As he struggled through the terrible difficulties of the war, leading one of the armies of the Nephites, he wrote that he had little food and not enough men to contend with an “innumerable” army of Lamanites. He requested help from the government but did not get enough. So, he turned to the Lord: “Therefore we did pour out our souls in prayer to God, that he would strengthen us and deliver us out of the hands of our enemies, yea, and also give us strength that we might retain our cities, and our lands, and our possessions, for the support of our people.” He also wrote, “Our armies are small to maintain so great a number of cities and so great possessions. But behold, we trust in our God who has given us victory over those lands…. We trust God will deliver us, notwithstanding the weakness of our armies, yea, and deliver us out of the hands of our enemies” (Alma 58:10, 33, 37). He and his men trusted in the Lord. and they were indeed delivered miraculously. He must have passed this lesson on to his son Helaman as well who had his own difficulties with the Gadianton robbers and was miraculously preserved from them. This Helaman then taught his sons a similar principle, “And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall” (Helaman 5:12). In other words, he encouraged them and us to trust in the Redeemer, and if we do then the devil and the storms of life cannot have any lasting power over us. These words were surely a powerful support to his sons Nephi and Lehi as they faced their own challenges preaching to the people. Thus, from generation to generation this family passed on the important truth that as we put our trust in the Savior and rely on Him, we will be delivered from our trials and troubles and afflictions and will be lifted up at the last day. Their example reminds us that we must find a way to pass on that same testimony to our own posterity.