You Have to Put Forth the Effort

Alma teaches a multitude about faith. We are all familiar with his analogy of faith being like a seed, and the way that we can know if a seed is good is to "try an experiment upon [his] words" and plant the seed, and if it grows, the seed must have been a good seed. In other words, if we aren't sure whether daily prayer is going to benefit our lives, and want to see if it does, the easiest way to do that is to start praying every day. When you see the benefit in your life, you can see that sure enough, it does bring the blessings. You now know (in that thing) that the seed was good because you saw it grow.

This is a great analogy because we have all experienced (to some degree) the growth of a plant from a tiny little seed. The part we sometimes skip a little bit is that it takes effort on our part to find out if the seed is good. We have our own work to do. We have to plant it, provide it good ground, plenty of water, etc. We all know that if we don't do those things, the seed won't grow, no matter how good the seed was to start out.

The same thing is true of faith. We have to try it out. We have to experiment upon the words before we can know for sure that they are good.

Alma explains it this way:

"38 But if ye neglect the tree, and take no thought for its nourishment, behold it will not get any root; and when the heat of the sun cometh and scorcheth it, because it hath no root it withers away, and ye pluck it up and cast it out.

39 Now, this is not because the seed was not good, neither is it because the fruit thereof would not be desirable; but it is because your ground is barren, and ye will not nourish the tree, therefore ye cannot have the fruit thereof.

40 And thus, if ye will not nourish the word, looking forward with an eye of faith to the fruit thereof, ye can never pluck of the fruit of the tree of life." (Alma 32:38-40)

I like that he explains that it isn't because the seed wasn't good, but our own neglect that causes it not to grow. If our desire is to grow that seed, then we are responsible for giving it nourishment and water, and proper soil, so that it can grow and flourish in our lives. Only then will we know that the seed is good.