Today I was struck by Moroni 1. It is a short chapter, but I found it to be very powerful this morning. Here we have Moroni, the son of Mormon, both of whom were great worriers, but spiritually and physically. They were skilled in the art of war and were courageous on the battle field. This is evidenced by those chapters in Mormon when all but 24 Nephites are killed, Mormon and Moroni were two of the twenty-four. All that is a tangent, but it helped me realize the significance of Moroni 1. In this chapter we learn that Moroni is alone and is fleeing for his life from the Lamanites. I honestly think that would be a sentence worse than death, but that is just me. Moroni also tells us that the Lamanites are killing all of those that would not deny Christ. First, I ask myself the question, would I have the courage to not deny Christ, knowing that death would be the result? I hope I would, but there is no way one can say for sure unless put in that situation.
I have no doubt that Moroni wouldn't have denied Christ and would have been put to death as a result. This leads me to the second thing that hit me this morning. Moroni, the worrier that he is, could have sought out the lamanites and "defended" his belief in Christ, but knowing full well that death would be the result. Often times we put ourselves in situations where spiritual death is all around us, just to show Heavenly Father that we are strong and valiant in his cause. Does Heavenly Father really want us to put ourselves in those positions? Did He really want Moroni to "show" his courage and testimony by seeking out the Lamanites and "defending" his testimony? No! Some people think that the best way to show Heavenly Father your testimony is to be surrounded by sin and not to surrender to the temptations. Yes, that could be a way to show Heavenly Father your testimony, but I submit that he would much rather have you "avoid the appearance of evil" instead of seeking out sin in order to show your strength.
Yes, Moroni could have sought out the Lamanites in order to defend his testimony and show his courage, but he would have died in the end. If that happened, what would we have missed out on? We would have missed out on the whole book of Moroni! We wouldn't have the wonderful chapter on faith, hope, and charity. We wouldn't have the great chapter on baptizing infants. We would miss out on Moroni's promise! Yes, Moroni could have sought out and "honorable" death defending his testimony or he could have chosen to LIVE for Christ. By so doing, we have some of the greatest and oft-quoted scriptures in all of the Book of Mormon because Moroni showed his courage by living for Christ.
We, as members of this church, have to be willing to stand up for what we believe in, but we have to know how and when to fight our battles. There will be times in all of our lives, not by our own doing, we will be in a "spiritual" struggle with the surrounding Lamanites in which we will have to defend out testimonies of Christ, but we shouldn't seek those situations out. Instead, let us live for Christ. Let our testimonies shine in how we live our lives.
My prayer today is that we will live by the following quote:
President Ezra Taft Benson said: “Christ changes men, and changed men can change the world. Men changed for Christ will be captained by Christ. … Men captained by Christ will be consumed in Christ. … Their will is swallowed up in His will. (See John 5:30.) They do always those things that please the Lord. (See John 8:29.) Not only would they die for the Lord, but more important they want to live for Him” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1985, 5–6; or Ensign, Nov. 1985, 6).
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