"14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.
15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord." (Mosiah 24:14-15)
The people of Alma were righteous, yet they found themselves in bondage to Lamanites and one of the wicked priests of King Noah, Amulon, who had sided with the Lamanites.
One thing to point out here is that these were righteous people. Even righteous people find themselves in bondage, or burdened in some way. It is not caused by sin, or choosing the wrong path. It just is. It usually turns out to be a great learning opportunity.
This life is a test "to see if [we] will do all things whatsoever the Lord [our] God shall command [us]". To follow the commandments when our lives are easy and peachy is still hard, but it's not nearly as hard as it is when we are burdened in some way.
I love the concept in the scripture that I quoted today because sometimes, God doesn't deliver us from bondage or remove trials from our path as soon as we would like Him to. Sometimes He just makes it so we can bear them. This reminds me of a quote from our beloved prophet, President Thomas S. Monson: "Remember that the Lord will shape the back to bear the burden placed upon it." I love this. He isn't just saying that the Lord will magically ease our burdens. What he says is that the Lord will make it so we can bear the burden. He will strengthen us. He will mold us. I think this is why the people "did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord". Not because they were happy they had the burden, but they were cheerful because they could see that the Lord was helping them, and they knew it.
In our lives, God does the same thing for us, if we let him. Sometimes, we are so focused on the burdens that we have: their size, their shape. We are certain that nobody ever has been asked to carry a burden of that size before. We want others to know how much of a burden we have. But we spend so much time looking at these things that we don't notice the fact that it really isn't that burdensome, simply because the Lord has made it possible for us to bear, by making the burden light, or by shaping our backs so we can bear it, or both.
How many of us could honestly say that we submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord? I know I can't always say that. This is something I need to work on. And in doing so, I have faith that the Lord will make my burdens lighter.
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