2.229 Weakness into Strength

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's great to have you with me. Today let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. Who wants to talk about their weaknesses?

Nobody? Just me? Okay, let's do it.

We're reading this week Doctrine and Covenants section 88, which has been an amazing study for me this week. I hope you have enjoyed section 88 and I hope that you have pieces from it that draw you closer to our Heavenly Father. Thank you, Father, in Jesus Christ, as it is truly an olive leaf, an opportunity for us to have the peace of the Lord in our lives.

We're also reading this week Alma, chapter 48 through 52, which is quite timely, because while the Lord is talking about wars and rumors of wars in our own day, we have the book of Alma, the later chapters, the ones that we're in right now, that talk to us about some of the preparation that the Nephites did in order to accomplish success in their wars. In the literal ones, not just the spiritual ones. Our verse for today, and to finish up this week, we're not going to get into too many Book of Mormon verses this week because of Doctrine and Covenants 88, but I do want to share one that stood out to me this time in my study.

It's in Alma 49:4, and what we're finding here is the Lamanites are going to go and attack the city of Ammonihah. And if you don't remember Ammonihah, it's the place where they rejected the teachings of the missionaries and ultimately rejected them several times, so much so that the Lamanites were allowed by the Lord to come in and destroy the city. Since then, the Nephites have then gone into Ammonihah and rebuilt the city.

And it seems to be at some sort of various stage of rebuilding. The Lamanites decide, hey, remember how weak Ammonihah was? Let's go attack it because it's just going to be an easy takeover for us.

That's where we get into our story in verse 4 here. So they're going to basically pull up to Ammonihah, right? The Lamanite army.

They're coming to see it. And when they see it, this is what happens. Verse 4: But behold, how great was their disappointment!

For behold, the Nephites had dug up a ridge of earth round about them, which was so high that the Lamanites could not cast their stones and their arrows at them, that they might take effect, neither could they come upon them save it was by their place of entrance. And then it continues going on about how amazed the chief captains are of the Lamanites because they saw Ammonihah as such a weak place and such a place that would be an easy place to start the war of taking over Nephite lands. My friends, what can we learn from the city of Ammonihah, a place that was completely destroyed because of their wickedness, and now a place that is able to withstand the attacks of the Lamanites?

I think we can see inside of this the promise that the Lord gives us throughout Scripture in many different places of his promise that our weaknesses may become our strengths as we turn to him. Ammonihah was certainly a place that was at its weakest during its highest time of wickedness. And afterwards, we don't know how or when, but it was reestablished.

Nephites came back into the city after its destruction and began to rebuild it. And then under Moroni's command, we see that it became a place that the Lamanites were not able to overcome and overtake. What does that mean for you and for me?

I know that it's quite difficult for a lot of people that I work with in the coaching realm and in the training realm to identify their weaknesses and then second take them to the Lord and ask for his help in becoming stronger. We too can become a city of Ammonihah, a place that, regardless of the past—perhaps even wickedness and sin behind us—can become a place of strength and a place that is able to withstand the armies that seek to destroy us. I love this message from Ammonihah.

I love the message that the Lamanites are so surprised because they saw the weakness and thought it was something to take advantage of. You and I have weaknesses. It's something that all of us experience as part of humanity.

It's part of our human condition. And yet the Lord promises us that if we will take those weaknesses before him with faith, we can make those strong in our lives. And I believe that with all my heart.

And I hope it for you as you go forward today. 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. For more information, visit us at www.fema.org.