The impact of a message depends on its content, its delivery, and its reception. Good news delivered by an articulate and enthusiastic messenger may fail to uplift its audience when their hearts and minds are darkened by cynicism or anger.
After the destruction of Ammonihah, during a period of peace, Alma and his associates resumed their work of preaching the gospel. Mormon tells us that the Lord poured out His Spirit upon the people:
...to prepare the minds of the children of men, or to prepare their hearts to receive the word which should be taught among them at the time of his coming—
That they might not be hardened against the word, that they might not be unbelieving, and go on to destruction, but that they might receive the word with joy, and as a branch be grafted into the true vine, that they might enter into the rest of the Lord their God.
Alma 16:16-17, italics added
The phrase "receive the word with joy" only appears one other place in the scriptures, in the Savior's explanation of the Parable of the Sower. The seeds which landed on a rock, He said, represented people who, "when they hear, receive the word with joy," but because they don't take root, they eventually fall away (Luke 8:13). They start well, but they fail to follow through.
Fortunately, the people of Alma not only started well, but they continued to find new joy as they asked questions and gained new insights. When they were taught about the coming of Jesus Christ, they asked where He would live. In response, they received a promise that He would visit them after His resurrection. "and this the people did hear with great joy and gladness" (Alma 16:20).
Today, I will receive the word with joy. I will open my heart to messages from God, and I will delight in the knowledge He provides.
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