It’s only six chapters, but this week’s reading covers 28 very tumultuous years of Nephite history.
Look at everything going on: wars with dissenters, secret combinations plotting to overthrow the government, chief judges being murdered on the job, Church leaders being put in prison... How could anyone be at peace during such crazy times?
And yet, in the midst of all this, the Church still grew! It grew so much, in fact, that even the leaders were surprised (see Helaman 3:25). Tens of thousands of people were converted and baptized!
No matter how bad things get in the world, the Lord always offers peace to those who follow Him.
As our prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, so memorably put it: “The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.”1
Notes
1. From “Joy and Spiritual Survival,” Oct. 2016 general conference.