Continued Preparation and Results

The Lamanites came to battle the Nephites, with the hopes of subjecting them to Amalickiah, who wanted to rule over everyone.

Captain Moroni directed the Nephites to fortify their cities. He went especially to those places that were weak and made them pretty much fortresses. The Lamanites were surprised by their preparation, and they moved on to another city, promising that they would attack there. They arrived only to find out that this city was better fortified than the first. But they kept their oath and attacked the city anyway. Because of the Nephites' preparations, they were not able to take the city. In fact, all of their leaders were killed, and so they left. While there were some injuries among the Nephites, they all survived the battle.

This chapter mentions a couple of times that the preparations made to these cities was unlike anything they had seen before. I think when the Lord is directing the work, sometimes it comes out differently than men are used to seeing. I think we ourselves sometimes get caught up in making our preparations (or building our faith, or following the gospel or whatever you want to call it) in exactly the same way that others do. We need to do it "their way" or we're not doing it good enough. I think we can all do things in such a way as to maximize the effectiveness for us. As we prepare, we will be blessed to know the best way to fortify ourselves against the attacks from the adversary. But we must always be prepared.

Once the Lamanites had run off, because they couldn't take the city, all that was left for them was to live the gospel the way they wanted to, and they had peace.

"Yea, and there was continual peace among them, and exceedingly great prosperity in the church because of their heed and diligence which they gave unto the word of God, which was declared unto them by Helaman, and Shiblon, and Corianton, and Ammon and his brethren, yea, and by all those who had been ordained by the holy order of God, being baptized unto repentance, and sent forth to preach among the people." (Alma 49:30)

The preaching of the word by men of God was one of the great blessings to the Nephites. They did what they were taught, and they prospered. This is always an ongoing process but they had prepared themselves physically and spiritually. Surely this is what caused them such peace and prosperity.