Trusting in Church Leaders

As I was reading in Alma 14 a few days ago, I had a thought come to me that I'd like to share. Sometimes it can be difficult to trust in church leadership. You may not agree with a bishop on the way things are run or don't think he is qualified enough. There are many reasons why it can be hard to trust in God's choice for the callings chosen in a ward, stake, or even in general callings. But, Heavenly Father puts people into those callings for a reason. It may be for those people to grow, and it may be for those around them to grow (or hopefully both!). When we raise our hand in church on Sunday to sustain someone, we are agreeing that we will support this person and trust in his/her leadership role in our ward.



Now on to Alma and my thought: Alma and Amulek had been preaching in Ammonihah like they had been inspired to do. It didn't seem like they were making a dent in the people there. After much effort and preaching, they were thrown into prison by many unbelievers. Additionally, those who actually had believed on Alma and Amulek's words, were being martyred for their faith. Alma and Amulek were forced to watch those they had taught be burned at the stake. They were taunted and goaded about their beliefs. As they stood there witnessing this horrorific death of men, women, and children, Amulek asked Alma if they could stretch forth their hands and exercise the power of God to save the people from the flames. But, Alma replied that the spirit kept him from doing that and he went on to explain why. Don't you think it was hard for Amulek to continue standing by his church leader as he watched those people calling out gut-wrenching, agonizing screams? I do. I think it definitely would have been hard to continue listening to Alma, even if he said he was doing it because of the spirit. But, Amulek listened nonetheless and he did so in faith knowing that Alma was a leader of Christ's church.



If Amulek could listen in such a troubling situation, don't you think that you and I can learn from his example? Sometimes we may not always understand why church leaders do certain things, but the beautiful thing is that we ALL have access to personal revelation. We can ask Heavenly Father to allow us His peace of mind, if it be His will. We can ask Heavenly Father to know that these leaders have been called of Him and take comfort knowing they are guided by our Father in Heaven.

(Of course, there may be exceptions to this, but in general, we should trust and sustain our church leaders in their callings.)