At the end of chapter 45, the people, despite the grand efforts of Helaman and other missionaries to preach the word of God, are starting to be puffed up and prideful. They started to focus on their riches and how they looked to the world more than the importance of walking righteously before God. Then a bad guy comes in, and because they haven't been keeping the commandments, they don't have the spiritual ammo or protection to see through the confusions and warpings of Satan. They become passive rather than being anxiously engaged in a good cause. So they fall. Keeping the commandments really is a protection. We must be anxiously engaged in doing GOOD. It is the way that we keep our armor strong, so that whatever happens, we have reserves of faith, hope, charity, and strength to face our trial head on and overcome it through the power of Christ's Atonement. If we don't obey, we have no such promise.
In verse 10, Amalickiah has been working to destroy the liberty that the people of Nephii once had. When we choose to sin, we lose power. We lose freedom. At the end of this verse, it is revealed why they had received freedom from God---because of the RIGHTEOUS. God promises the righteous the blessing of freedom. He knows how to get us there. But we have to avoid pride or we are going to fall like the people of Nephi. No one is exempt. We can be at such a high point, a grand connection with God just like them. Yet once they started comparing themselves and focusing on their riches and attributing their successes to themselves rather than God, they start to fall. And a cunning little man can come and blow them over.
Once Moroni heard about what was happening, he was angry.
How did he use this anger?
Wouldn't it have been easy for him to take his sword and go kill Amalickiah?
Wouldn't it have been easy for him to take out all his anger on everyone around him? He could have used his angers in many ways that would fuel the fire rather than fight against it.
But no, Moroni CHOSE to do something GOOD. He rent his coat and wrote upon it: "In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children--and he fastened it upon the end of a pole."
Then he put his armor on,
Bowed himself to the earth.
And prayed mightily unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren.
We can learn a lot about Moroni. We are all going to have moments where we either fall or we see those around us fall. One person in particular may even be the cause of it. But we must remember that in our anger of justice, we need to choose to do something GOOD. We need to use our energy not to fuel a conflict, but to fight injustice with goodness.
The other day I was reading about people who go online and see a comment against their religion and get into online arguments...big word bashings. Aren't there a million other GOOD things that we could be doing to fight EFFECTIVELY against awful comments? Couldn't we spread some good ones instead of engaging in negativity?
I think Moroni would be urging us to keep our standards of liberty in mind. How are we fighting for God's cause? How are we fighting for our families, our religion, our God? I, for one, want to spread goodness, not engage in bashing, blaming, or spreading awful vibes. I want to fight for the cause of God: to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
I must put my armor on,
Bow myself to the earth,
And pray mightily to God for the blessings of liberty to rest on myself and those around me.
GOD WILL SET US FREE.
Rachel
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