Desires

In listening to the Jim Rohn materials, I gleaned some insight that at first seemed at odds with Alma 32. In further examining it, i find it is in perfect harmony. Rohn suggests that we are not given what we need, we are given what we deserve. I believe I may have used his analogy elsewhere, but it applies here, especially. You can't go out to a barren field and say to it, "I'm hungry, I need food," and expect that the field will deliver food to you. There must be planting, nourishing, weeding cultivating and harvesting before we can enjoy the fruits of our field. That is why we call it "fruits of our labor."

Yet it seems, sometimes, that we petition God for fruit that we have not planted or cultivated. We get frustrated when we don't get immediate answers to prayers and assume he has not heard us, He does not care, or He does not exist. We fail to see our role in all this.

It doesn't take much to realize our desires, really, though it may seem like it while we are in the process. It always, however, takes faith. If we want any blessing from God or from the earth, for that matter, faith is always required. Alma 32, unlike the scriptures (such as Hebrews 11) that describe faith, describes how to acquire faith. Like everything else in life, it begins with a desire. It must be a sincere desire and not just a wish to have some supernatural experience.

While it begins with a desire, it does not end with the desire. We don't get what we need, we get what we deserve. Therefore, we must let the desire work in us and nourish it. Like a seed, the initial care has to be constant and intense. Once the plant matures, it still must be nourished, but with a modicum of care. The mature plant cannot be taken for granted or neglected, but fed and nourished with prayer, study, teaching, writing, bearing testimony, service, magnifying callings and being constantly mindful of the need to subject our will to the will of God.

The other aspect of desire that is not often expressed is that God desires to bless us. He desires for us to believe (v. 22) and is merciful to those who do. He amply supplies His word through various means including angels (v. 23). Of course, Satan also desires to have us that he may sift us as wheat.

Thus, we have agency. We choose between them whose agent (worker) we will be. Both desire us. Only one loves us enough to support, sustain and love us through the difficulties of growth. The other only entices us (very successfully at times) with empty promises and insatiable appetites, eventually leaving us having accomplished little of eternal significance. Logically, it should be easy to follow the only One who truly desires to bless us, but we do little by logic, unfortunately.