Mosiah 13

28 And moreover, I say unto you, that salvation doth not come by the law alone; and were it not for the atonement, which God himself shall make for the sins and iniquities of his people, that they must unavoidably perish, notwithstanding the law of Moses.

We are given commandments to guide our behavior, to show us right from wrong, and to help us be better people. But no matter how we try, we cannot be perfect. We can - and should! - strive to obey every commandment, but inevitably we will make mistakes. Thankfully, "salvation doth not come by the law alone." It is not ONLY by obeying God's commandments that we will be saved. Because of the atonement, we are redeemed from sin and error. It is only because of the atonement that we will not "unavoidably perish."

Mosiah 10-12

A sister in our ward spoke recently about the importance of voting in local and national elections and doing our part to elect good leaders. These chapters help illustrate the importance of good leadership for our country.

King Zeniff was a good man. He was a righteous leader and his people were for the most part righteous. Unfortunately, after he died, King Noah came to power. King Noah was an incredibly wicked man. He installed other leaders (the priests) who were also wicked. With leaders and examples such as these, it became much easier for the general populace to slide down into wickedness also. Until in a very short time, the people who had been righteous and blessed and protected by God were no longer righteous. They were in danger from their enemies and would not be able to call on God to help them because of their wickedness.

It's not hard to draw parallels to events we have seen happening around the world in our own days...

Mosiah 9

17 Yea, in the strength of the Lord did we go forth to battle against the Lamanites; for I and my people did cry mightily to the Lord that he would deliver us out of the hands of our enemies, for we were awakened to a remembrance of the deliverance of our fathers.

In verse 17, Zeniff comments that he and his men went forth in the strength of the Lord. And because they did this, they were victorious in the battle they were about to fight.

Now hopefully we are not going into a literal battle the way Zeniff was, but we all fight battles every day. Battles against temptation and sin. Battles against our circumstances. Battles against anger or despair or hopelessness. These battles are of great importance to us because they affect our lives.

If we can remember to go forth in the strength of the Lord every day, in every battle, we will be able to come out victorious in our daily battles. Cry mightily to the Lord for deliverance... in other words, pray for help in your personal battles. The Lord will hear your cries and come to your aid.

Mosiah 8

18 Thus God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles; therefore he becometh a great benefit to his fellow beings.

When we have faith and listen to God, WE can be a benefit to our fellow beings. WE can be the source of blessings and mighty miracles. What an incredible feeling and an awesome responsibility to do all that we can to help others.

Mosiah 7

verse 19: Therefore, lift up your heads, and rejoice, and put your trust in God...

This is a great verse to remember when you're having a rough time.

Lift up your head - To me that means don't wallow in your troubles. Don't spend your time dwelling on what has gone wrong or how you wish things could be.

Rejoice - Think of all the wonderful things you have in your life. Focus on your blessings and things that are good. Be grateful for the presence of God and the gospel in your life.

Put your trust in God - Turn your troubles over to God and trust that He will help you find the way through. Pray and have faith. Do all that you can do. And then trust God to make things come out for the best... even if it's not what you would have chosen.

Mosiah 6

1 And now, king Benjamin thought it was expedient, after having finished speaking to the people, that he should take the names of all those who had entered into a covenant with God to keep his commandments.

2 And it came to pass that there was not one soul, except it were little children, but who had entered into the covenant and had taken upon them the name of Christ.

How incredible that there was NO ONE who did not believe and enter into the convenant. What an incredible experience it would have been to be there to hear King Benjamin speak.

Mosiah 5

verse 2 And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.

I want to have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually! I've occasionally experienced this. You know how everything goes in cycles... and sometimes you're on a real upswing and on track with all your spiritual development.

When I'm in that mode, I really do feel no disposition to do evil. I'm not tempted to go off the right path, I'm clicking along doing the things I'm supposed to do. Sadly, I haven't been able to maintain that high place and eventually things slide downhill a bit. And while I can't say that I go around doing evil necessarily, I can say that I also don't do all things that I know I should be doing.

I just need to work harder to stay on that high end of the cycle and fight harder when I start the slide down to the lower end of the cycle...