Alma 37:36 - 37:40

Alma 37: 36 Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.

Alma tell his son to be sure to pray continuously over all things Helaman is doing. He is to keep his mind continuously thinking about the Lord and what he can do to further His cause. Just let Christ be the center of our thoughts instead of the things of this world.

The best way to keep virtue always in our thoughts.

Alma 37: 37 Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

Helaman’s prayers should be when he wakes up and goes to bed. He should pray when trying to decide what is the next thing he should do that has major ramifications.

Alma 37: 38 And now, my son, I have somewhat to say concerning the thing which our fathers call a ball, or director—or our fathers called it Liahona, which is, being interpreted, a compass; and the Lord prepared it.

Alma now makes a comment about the Liahona as it is called. It was created by the Lord to act as a compass for Lehi and his family.

Alma 37: 39 And behold, there cannot any man work after the manner of so curious a workmanship. And behold, it was prepared to show unto our fathers the course which they should travel in the wilderness.

The design and workings of the Liahona could only be done by a higher intellect. No man could have created such a device and it worked like it did. It was specifically create for Lehi and his family to get them through to the promise land.

Alma 37: 40 And it did work for them according to their faith in God; therefore, if they had faith to believe that God could cause that those spindles should point the way they should go, behold, it was done; therefore they had this miracle, and also many other miracles wrought by the power of God, day by day.

And the devise worked only by faith of those who had it. If their faith wavered, the Liahona quit working. This is a miracle. That a machine work only by the attitude of it owner not by whether it was hooked up to some sort of power supply. This was just one of the many miracles that Lehi and his family experienced on the way to the land of promise.