7 And Ammon said: I will go and inquire of the Lord, and if he say unto us, go down unto our brethren, will ye go?
8 And the king said unto him: Yea, if the Lord saith unto us go, we will go down unto our brethren, and we will be their slaves until we repair unto them the many murders and sins which we have committed against them.
9 But Ammon said unto him: It is against the law of our brethren, which was established by my father, that there should be any slaves among them; therefore let us go down and rely upon the mercies of our brethren.
10 But the king said unto him: Inquire of the Lord, and if he saith unto us go, we will go; otherwise we will perish in the land.
I admire the faith of both Ammon and the king in this story. Ammon felt compassion for the converts who would rather give up their lives than break the covenant they had made. He wanted to find a way to preserve them from their heartless enemies. The king found it hard to believe that the Nephites would forgive their prior sins. But, with childlike trust, he said to Ammon, “If the Lord saith unto us go, we will go down.”
The king’s humility reminds me of the hymn “I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go.” A prerequisite to being guided by the Lord is to adopt this attitude, as demonstrated by the words of the Savior, “Not my will but thine be done” (Luke 22:42). Otherwise, we are unlikely to recognize and accept the answers we receive.
We know that our Heavenly Father’s understanding is perfect and that His perspective is limitless. Why then do we so often resist bending our will to His? I don’t know the answer, but that is the great test of this life. Will we choose to give Him the thing He will never take from us: our will? Are we willing to bend our will to His, knowing that He desires our happiness and that our own provincial and flawed desires will not bring us the joy and fulfillment that we seek?
Today, I will strive to pray with the attitude exemplified by the king of the Lamanites. I will tell my Heavenly Father that I’m willing to follow where He leads, and I will listen to the guidance I receive from Him, setting aside my own predilections and biases. I will recommit to go where He wants me to go.
Leave a Reply