Day 232 Spiritual Armor: Zero to a Thousand Victory

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus tells his followers that they are the salt of the earth, and in the same sentence offers a warning that savorless salt is good for nothing. Join me in an attempt to be savory salt as I share each day one verse of scripture and one small thought. Perhaps this small daily emphasis can lead to greater savor in your life, and ultimately you and I can be savory salt.

Hello, my friends and family, wherever you're listening from, thank you for joining me and know that I'm cheering for your every success. I got a question for you. How's that armor working for you?

Welcome to Day 232 on our 365-day journey through the Book of Mormon together. Today, you're going to be reading Alma chapter 49, verses 19 through 30. You will finish that chapter and the destruction that comes with the Lamanites there and all of that.

And you're going to read Alma chapter 50, verses 1 through 8 as well, and get a little bit of a view of more of the preparations that Moroni puts forth for the war between him and the Lamanites. But that takes us to our verse for today. We're going to look at Alma chapter 49, verse 23, and let's look at the results of the armor that Moroni has spent time putting on his defenses.

Now, this is not just the armor on the warriors themselves, on the soldiers themselves, but also the armor that he has placed in building defenses around his cities. So this is the heaps of earth it talks about, and the timbers it talks about, all these types of things. Let's take a look at the results in verse 23.

It says, "Thus the Nephites had all power over their enemies." And thus the Lamanites did attempt to destroy the Nephites until their chief captains were all slain. Yea, and more than a thousand of the Lamanites were slain. While on the other hand, there was not a single soul of the Nephites which was slain.

Now, this one's an interesting one today because what I wanted to look at was: Here we see very tangible results of physical armor and what it can do for defenses in battle. You've got a kill count of zero to a thousand, right? That's a huge difference when it comes to dealing with armies.

A thousand Lamanites were slain, zero Nephites were lost. And that's the combination of the armor that they have, again, on their bodies, as well as the time they've spent. We'll be right back.

In building defenses of their cities, my friends, what are we doing in our lives when it comes to the spiritual armor? Now, for many of you, you may immediately be thinking of Ephesians chapter 6 where it talks about the armor of God. Maybe some of you are thinking about Doctrine and Covenants section 27.

And what I wanted to do today was give you a fun little reference for those of you that are working with younger people, names of people, maybe some children in your family, that you could go to and see. It's an older reference, but I'll have a link in the podcast for you to go check that out. My friends, it's interesting to me how if our houses and our families were under a tangible physical threat and attack, we would spend the time to get our houses in order when it comes to defenses.

Are we doing the same to prepare ourselves spiritually in terms of building defenses for the war that we are in? We are absolutely in the days of spiritual battle. I was just talking to my Sunday school class about it, and they were listing for me different ways that they see Satan in their lives on a daily basis.

To build our spiritual armor and to put our houses, our rooms, our places, we spend our time in spiritual defense mode that we can come out with a ratio of zero to a thousand. May all of those temptations, may all of those struggles, all of the dangers that surround us fall by the wayside as we seek to have the spiritual armor that comes from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If you have some time, perhaps dive into Ephesians 6 a little bit, Doctrine and Covenants section 27 a little bit.

See what those references are to having the armor of God as part of your life. And with it, go forward and serve, knowing that you are better equipped and better defended because the Lord is truly on your side. That's all for today, my friends.

Remember that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. Keep it small, keep it simple, and always seek to be savory salt. I'll be here tomorrow, and I hope you are too.