When God calls you to do something, He compensates for the opportunity cost of fulfilling that calling.
July 1838 was a challenging time for church leaders and their families in Caldwell and Daviess Counties, Missouri. Many had only recently relocated from Kirtland, Ohio and were adjusting to a more primitive life on the frontier. Their neighbors were increasingly antagonistic. Yet the Lord instructed His twelve apostles to “continue to preach,” with the following assurance:
If they will do this in all lowliness of heart, in meekness and humility, and long-suffering, I, the Lord, give unto them a promise that I will provide for their families; and an effectual door shall be opened for them, from henceforth.
Doctrine and Covenants 118:3
This promise must have been increasingly important to them in the months that followed, as their families were driven from Missouri, Joseph Smith and other leaders were imprisoned for months in Liberty Jail, and a malaria epidemic swept through their new settlement in Illinois—just as they were preparing to embark on a mission to England.
When Alma arrived in Antionum with a group of missionaries, including two of his own sons, he knew that he was in hostile territory, but he trusted that the Lord would meet their needs as they did His work:
And the Lord provided for them that they should hunger not, neither should they thirst; yea, and he also gave them strength, that they should suffer no manner of afflictions, save it were swallowed up in the joy of Christ. Now this was according to the prayer of Alma; and this because he prayed in faith.
Alma 31:38
Note that they still suffered afflictions; God didn’t remove the hardship. But He provided compensatory blessings which outweighed their sacrifice, and He sustained them as they contributed to His work.
Today I will remember God’s promise to provide for me and for my family as I do His work. I will trust that any sacrifice I make on His behalf will be “swallowed up” in the blessings I receive as a result of my service.
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