Deliverance - Messages from Mosiah

As I make my way through the book of Mosiah there are a number of verses I've underlined that I realize have a common theme. It's that the Lord will deliver us. He'll deliver us from our enemies, from discouragement, from disappointment, from challenges and temptations, from bondage to sin, financial bondage, or any problems we are having in life we feel we can't overcome on our own. How do we tap into that power? These verses provide the answers.

Mosiah 7:32 But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage.

So if we are having challenges or problems in our lives (in effect being in bondage) , here's a three part formula to be delivered.

1. Turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart. I'm still pondering what "full purpose of heart" fully means but I know it means that a half-hearted attempt to turn to the Lord won't work. It's an attitude of totally "not my will, but thy will be done."

2. Put your trust in him. I think that means having faith that He'll delivery us, but it may not be immediately. In His wisdom He may have his own timetable. I've lived long enough that I can look back and see why his timetable has been for the best.

3. Serve him with all diligence of mind. I see this as magnifying our callings and serving him and others with diligence.

Mosiah 9:17 ..."for I and my people did cry mightily to the Lord that he would deliver us out of the hands of our enemies..."

This continues this recurring theme in the Book of Mormon about "deliverance." This verse adds a fourth step to the the first verse I mentioned - to pray, but more than just a half-hearted prayer. Crying mightily to the Lord in prayer suggests an Enos-like earnestness and intensity in prayer I'm afraid I don't have often enough.

Mosiah 10:11 - "Now, the Lamanites knew nothing concerning the Lord, nor the strength of the Lord, therefore they did depend on their own strength."

If we try to overcome challenges with our own strength and wisdom alone it may not be enough, but if we draw on the strength of the Lord, casting our burdens upon the Lord - then with God all things are possible. Even though the Nephites were vastly outnumbered by the Lamanites in battle, the strength of the Lord gave the Nephites the advantage.

Later Alma puts it this way: "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 delivered at the last day."

Modern prophets have reiterated the message of delivery - nobody more simply that President Hinckley did at his wife's funeral when he said, "It isn't as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. Don't worry. I say that to myself every morning. It will all work out. Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith and confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us. He will not forsake us. If we put our trust in Him, if we will pray to Him, if we will live worthy of His blessings, He will hear our prayers." President Hinckley knew the Lord's promises of deliverance are true.

No matter what our challenges are I, too, have a testimony that just like the Lord delivered Joseph Smith from the dark power that overcame him in the sacred grove, just as he delivered the children of Israel from the armies of Pharaoh, just as he delivered the Nephites from the Lamanites he'll deliver us from our trials.