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Sabbath Devotional :: An Eye of Faith
Several years ago, during an especially difficult time of my life, I was reading in Alma 5 when a phrase from verse 15 jumped out at me: Do you look forward with an eye of faith? At that time in my life, “looking forward with an eye of faith” meant believing my current difficult situation was not permanent. It meant trusting that things could and would improve. It meant holding on to hope instead of yielding to despair. Asking myself that question reminded me to shift my focus from fear to faith. In the years since, this question has come to my mind at different times, prompting reflection and acting…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Alma and Amulek — Joining Together to Make a Difference
After serving as the chief law-giver and judge of the people for nine years, Alma the Younger became increasingly distraught with what he observed among his people. People were growing prouder and vainer, focusing more on “riches and upon the vain things of the world,” becoming “scornful, one towards another,” and persecuting those who believed differently. There were “great contentions among the people” as well as “envyings, and strife, and malice” — and this division, this conflict, this hate existed not only outside of the church but inside it as well, festering like a cancer among people who had outwardly professed to have adopted the doctrine of Christ. The “wickedness…