And
he began to cry unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, have mercy; according to thy
abundant mercy which thou hast had upon the people of Nephi, have upon me, and
my people. (Alma 18:41)
From this verse of prayer it is
possible to tell some of the things Lamoni was taught by Ammon, even though the
essential elements are only touched on by Moron who abridged the account.
“O Lord, have mercy” – Lamoni had to have
been taught about 1) the plan of redemption and 2) about the Lord’s abundant
mercy, such that he would feel inspired to ask for mercy.
“According to thy abundant mercy which
thou hast had upon the people of Nephi, have upon me, and my people” – Lamoni had
to have been taught about all the ways the Lord had had mercy upon the Nephites
insomuch that he desired that for his own people. And it is most likely that he
was taught about the intermediary role that the high priest (or high priestly
king) played in pleading for the people, because he immediately assumes that
role by interceding for his own people as well as pleading for himself.
One of the important principles all
people have to learn in order to have the courage to ask for forgiveness for
their sins is concerning the abundant mercy of God. Without this, we wouldn’t
have the confidence to ask for Him to have mercy on us. This confidence is best
built by hearing how the Lord has had mercy on others, particularly those who
were in a worse case. (This is partly Ammon and his brethren were such great
missionaries. They had been in an awful state, and the Lord had mercy on them,
so they shared that, so that all those in similar states could trust that they could obtain mercy too.)
Let’s work on noticing the mercies that
the Lord has bestowed on us and tell others about them.
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