2.162 He Knows How to Succor Your Infirmities

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry his flavor, his truth, and his love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as Savory Salt. Hello my friends, it is great to have you with me.

Today let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. Let's stay in the Book of Mormon one more day here before we jump back to Doctrine and Covenants, shall we? This week we're reading Doctrine and Covenants sections 60 through 63, as well as Alma chapters 6 through 10.

And as I was reading the two of these back and forth, I came across two verses that we're going to do today. The Book of Mormon is a testimony of the role that Joseph Smith played as the prophet of this beginning of the last dispensation. You see there a lot of talk about Joseph Smith, and a lot of people attack Joseph Smith quite honestly because they don't know how to attack the Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon has been held up by scholars inside and outside the Church and has regularly found people just befuddled at what it is because it has so many different voices, so much doctrine, so much regularity through it. And people just look at it and kind of go, 'Well, we don't know how to attack that, so let's attack Joseph Smith instead.' And these two verses, for me, the one we're going to share today and the one we're going to share tomorrow, is a bit of a testimony builder that Joseph Smith truly was inspired by and had the authority of God to work to restore the Church of Jesus Christ here on the earth today. Let's take a look at the first one and see if we can connect the two of these.

The full connection obviously coming tomorrow. Our verse for today is in Alma chapter 7 verse 12. Now Alma has gone over to the people of Gideon, which is mostly made up of members of the Church at that time.

And so he's seeing them and he's saying, 'Hey, I'm not going to have to talk to you about the same things I did, you know, a couple of chapters ago.' He's not saying that a couple of chapters ago, but he's saying, 'Hey, I recently spoke to people that needed to be, you know, a little bit more drawn into repentance and called to repentance. I see that you guys are a little bit more in line here.' And then he bears his testimony of Jesus Christ. And here our verse for today, in verse 12, he says, 'And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.' Now, I love that Alma comes in and again goes to his testimony of Jesus Christ.

That's been our theme we've talked about for the last several days here. But another thing I love inside of this is this last phrase. I love that he learns, Christ learns, according to the flesh, how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

This is such an insightful look. We're going to take a look at the role that the Savior plays for each one of us, because if you tap on succor and you look a little bit further into it, not just the scriptures it gives you, but really look into the role that succoring plays, it's not just helping people. It's helping people that are in specific times of hardship and distress, right?

It's helping people in their deepest and darkest times of need. And that is exactly the role the Savior plays in our lives if we turn to him and allow him to do that. Now remember that this is a part one.

We're going to look and connect this fully tomorrow. But my friends, I love that Alma understands. And by the way, he would absolutely know how that succoring works, having gone through the repentance process that he did.

So he's speaking here, not just from a state of testimony, but from a state almost of knowledge of the goodness of Jesus Christ and the role that his Atonement plays in our lives. So today, this reminder here that Jesus Christ knows in the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities, it's a wonderful blessing for you and I to see the role the Savior can play in our lives if we will turn to him and ask for help in our own infirmities that we're experiencing on a day-to-day basis. That's all for today, my friends.

Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave unto the covenants you have made, and together we will be Savory Salt.