Zeal

In the Book of Mormon one of my favorite words is Zeal!  This is a word that denotes a strong feeling. It means ardent, excitement, ferver, and enthusiasm.

We see it first in Mosiah 27:35 where the sons of Mosiah after being converted to the gospel go about “zealously striving to repair all the injuries” they had done while preaching against the church before their conversion.

Then we see it in Alma 21:23 where King Lamoni (son) is taught by Ammon and his people were “zealous for keeping the commandments of God.”

Later in Alma 27:27, 30 all of the Lamanites that had now accepted the truth and had been converted were “distinguished for their zeal towards God and also towards men…” and “they were a zealous and beloved people, a highly favored people of the Lord.”

It is great to see how Ammon (and his brothers) zeal lead to the zeal with King Lamoni and his people, and then spread to all the Lamanites that believed.

Do we feel zeal in our life? And if not, how can we?

The answer lies in the story of these sons of Mosiah. In Alma 17:2-4 we read:

“ …for they were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God.

But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God.

And they had been teaching the word of God for the space of fourteen years among the Lamanites, having had much success in bringing many to the knowledge of the truth; yea, by the power of their words many were brought before the altar of God, to call on his name and confess their sins before him.

We see in the above versus that they searched the scriptures, prayed, fasted, and confessed their sins. By doing this they had the spirit of prophecy and revelation.

All of these people had zeal in their lives because they took the time and performed the steps nessesary to have the spirit of revelation with them. When we have revelation, or inspiration as it is called many times, with us in our daily life we feel an excitement for life and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Then we are in a position to help others feel this zeal and influcence our friends, families, wards, cities, and nations.

What steps do we need to do better to have this kind of zeal in our own life? Prioritize them now and don’t miss out on this feeling.

Learn more about the Sons of Mosiah and those they taught in this video. https://youtu.be/znleUXF1nW4