Alma teaches the poor whose afflictions had humbled them—Faith is a hope in that which is not seen which is true—Alma testifies that angels minister to men, women, and children—Alma compares the word unto a seed—It must be planted and nourished—Then it grows into a tree from which the fruit of eternal life is picked.
About 74 B.C.
📜 38 But if ye neglect the tree, and take no thought for its nourishment, behold it will not get any root; and when the heat of the sun cometh and scorcheth it, because it hath no root it withers away, and ye pluck it up and cast it out.
📜 39 Now, this is not because the seed was not good, neither is it because the fruit thereof would not be desirable; but it is because your ground is barren, and ye will not nourish the tree, therefore ye cannot have the fruit thereof.
📜 40 And thus, if ye will not nourish the word, looking forward with an eye of faith to the fruit thereof, ye can never pluck of the fruit of the tree of life.
What Happens When We Stop Nourishing Our Faith
When Alma says “if ye neglect the tree, and take no thought for its nourishment…” he is giving us a spiritual law. Faith is alive. It grows when we feed it, and it withers when we ignore it. Using his imagery, we can see several consequences that unfold when we stop tending the seed God planted in us.
These passages echo Alma’s warning almost word‑for‑word in spiritual principle. They show what happens when we stop nourishing our faith, harden our hearts, or drift from the Lord.
1. Our faith stops taking root
When we “take no thought for its nourishment,” our faith remains shallow.
We may still believe in God, but our belief has nothing to anchor itself to—no prayer, no scripture, no remembrance, no obedience.
Without roots, our faith cannot hold us steady.
2. Pressure exposes our weakness
Alma says “when the heat of the sun cometh and scorcheth it…”
The “heat” represents the real pressures of life—stress, temptation, disappointment, delay, grief, confusion.
If our faith has no root, these moments do not refine us; they overwhelm us.
We feel spiritually fragile because we are spiritually undernourished.
3. Our faith begins to wither
Alma’s phrase “it withers away” is painfully honest.
When we stop feeding our faith, we do not stay spiritually neutral.
We lose spiritual sensitivity.
We stop feeling the Spirit as easily.
We forget what God has already done for us.
We become more reactive, more fearful, more self-reliant, and less hopeful.
4. We eventually cast it out ourselves
Alma says “ye pluck it up and cast it out.”
This is the sobering part:
Neglect does not merely weaken our faith—it can lead us to reject the very things that once nourished us.
We stop praying because we feel nothing.
We stop reading because it feels distant.
We stop obeying because it feels optional.
And slowly, without realizing it, we remove from our lives the very seed that could have saved us.
5. The tragedy is not that God withdraws—
it's that we drift
Alma does not say God uproots the seed.
We do.
Neglect is not God’s punishment; it is our own slow undoing.
But the beauty of Alma’s teaching is this:
If neglect can wither faith, nourishment can revive it.
The seed is living.
It responds the moment we return to it.
Scripture gives us many witnesses of this same pattern:
📗 Jeremiah 17:5 — “whose heart departeth from the Lord”
This is the clearest parallel.
When our heart turns away, we lose the very root that keeps us alive spiritually.
📒 1 Nephi 17:45 — “ye were past feeling”
Neglect leads to spiritual numbness.
Just like the withered seed, we stop feeling the Spirit’s warmth.
📒 Helaman 12:2 — “they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord”
Neglect always leads to forgetting.
Forgetting leads to hardness.
Hardness leads to spiritual collapse.
📕 Matthew 13:21 — “when tribulation ariseth… he is offended”
This is Alma 32:38 in New Testament form.
No root 》 heat comes 》 faith withers.
📒 2 Nephi 28:21 — “the devil… leadeth them away carefully”
Neglect doesn’t usually look dramatic.
It’s slow, subtle, careful—just like a plant quietly drying out.
📒 Alma 12:11 — “they know nothing… and are taken captive”
When we stop nourishing faith, our understanding darkens.
We become spiritually vulnerable.
📒 3 Nephi 18:13 — “built upon a sandy foundation… they shall fall”
A neglected foundation collapses under pressure.
A neglected seed withers under heat.
Same law, different image.
📒 1 Nephi 8:28 — “they fell away into forbidden paths”
Neglect leads to drifting.
Drifting leads to losing our way.
📘 D&C 84:54 — “your minds… have been darkened because of unbelief”
This is the inner consequence of neglect:
darkened minds, dimmed memory, weakened faith.
📒 Alma 24:30 — “once enlightened… and then have fallen away”
A direct witness that spiritual life can wither if we stop tending it.
When Faith Lives Again
When we neglect our faith, it loses root, loses strength, and loses life. Pressures that could have refined us instead scorch us. We drift from the very things that once fed us, and eventually we cast aside the seed that was meant to grow into a tree of life within us. But Alma’s message is ultimately hopeful: the moment we begin to nourish our faith again—with prayer, remembrance, obedience, and trust—God causes it to live, to root, and to grow.
When Our Ground Becomes Barren
A Dissection of Alma 32:39
Alma teaches us that when faith fails to grow, it is not because the seed was bad. God’s word is always good. Christ’s promises are always desirable. The problem lies somewhere else—in our ground.
Alma says:
》 “your ground is barren, and ye will not nourish the tree, therefore ye cannot have the fruit thereof.” 《
He is showing us what happens inside us when we neglect our faith.
1. Our spiritual ground becomes barren
“Ground” is the condition of our heart—our willingness, softness, humility, and desire.
When we neglect our faith:
▪︎ our hearts dry out
▪︎ our spiritual soil loses softness
▪︎ we stop receiving what God is
trying to plant in us
📜 3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
📜 4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:
🗝 5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:
📜 6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
📜 7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:
📜 8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
Barren ground cannot sustain life.
Even a perfect seed cannot grow in soil we refuse to tend.
2. We stop nourishing what God has already
planted
Alma says “ye will not nourish the tree.”
This is a choice, not a flaw in the seed.
Neglect looks like:
▪︎ prayer becoming irregular
▪︎ scripture feeling optional
▪︎ obedience slipping into convenience
▪︎ gratitude fading into forgetfulness
📗 Jeremiah 17:5 — “whose heart departeth from the Lord”
A departing heart becomes barren ground.
📒 1 Nephi 17:45 — “ye were past feeling"
Barren ground loses sensitivity.
📘 D&C 84:54 — “your minds… have been darkened because of unbelief”
Unbelief dries the soil of the soul.
These three match the inner condition of barrenness that comes from neglect.
When nourishment stops, growth stops.
3. We lose access to the fruit God wants to
give us
Alma’s warning is gentle but firm:
》 “therefore ye cannot have
the fruit thereof.” 《
Not will not.
Not might not.
Cannot.
Fruit—peace, revelation, strength, joy, clarity, hope—cannot grow in barren soil.
Neglect doesn’t just slow our progress; it blocks our harvest.
In the April 2012 General Conference talk By Elder Jeffrey R. Holland Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles entitled "The Laborers in the Vineyard". Elder Holland spoke.
"Please listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit telling you right now, this very moment, that you should accept the atoning gift of the Lord Jesus."
Alma’s warning is not meant to shame us but to awaken us. When we neglect the seed, we lose access to the very fruit God longs to place in our hands. The soil grows barren, the harvest disappears, and we find ourselves living without the peace, revelation, strength, joy, clarity, and hope that once sustained us. But the moment we turn back—softening our hearts, nourishing our faith, and accepting Christ’s gift—the vineyard opens again. As Elder Holland pleads, the Spirit invites us “this very moment” to receive the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The fruit becomes possible again the instant we choose to return to Him.
4. The problem is not God’s word—
it is our unwilling soil
Alma emphasizes:
▪︎ the seed is good
▪︎ the fruit is desirable
▪︎ the promise is sure
But if our ground is barren, even the best seed cannot flourish.
This protects us from the lie that “faith doesn’t work.”
The seed works.
The fruit is real.
The issue is whether we are willing to cultivate the soil of our soul.
In the April 2013 General Conference talk By President Dieter F. Uchtdorf Second Counselor in the First Presidency entitled "The Hope of God’s Light" spoke.
"As we seek to increase our love for God and strive to love our neighbor, the light of the gospel will surround and uplift us."
Alma reminds us that God’s word is never the problem. The seed is always good, the fruit is always desirable, and the promise is always sure. What God offers is constant; what changes is the condition of our soil. President Uchtdorf teaches that as we turn our hearts toward God and increase our love for Him and for others, “the light of the gospel will surround and uplift us.” When we choose to soften our ground and welcome His light, the seed begins to grow again. The blessings we thought were lost return, and the fruit we once could not receive becomes possible through our renewed willingness to let God work in us.
5. Neglect turns potential into loss
The tragedy of Alma 32:39 is not failure—it is unrealized possibility.
We could have had fruit.
We could have tasted joy.
We could have grown a tree of life within us.
But barren ground and neglected nourishment leave the tree stunted and fruitless.
📘 D&C 133:29 — “in the barren deserts there shall come forth pools”
God can restore barren places—perfect for your hopeful ending.
📒 Isaiah 54:1 — “Sing, O barren…”
Barren does not mean hopeless; God brings abundance to empty places.
📕 2 Peter 1:8 — “neither be barren… in the knowledge of our Lord”
A direct warning that barrenness means lost growth and lost fruit.
These three reinforce our final movement:
barrenness is real, but God can reverse it the moment we nourish the seed again.
When God Brings Life Back to Barren Ground
Alma teaches that when we neglect our faith, our spiritual ground becomes barren. We stop nourishing what God has planted, and the seed—though good—cannot take root or bear fruit. The loss is not because God’s word fails, but because we withhold the nourishment that allows it to grow. Yet the hope remains: the moment we soften our ground and begin to nourish the seed again, God brings life back into our soil, and the fruit becomes possible once more.
When Neglect Keeps Us from the Tree of Life
A Dissection of Alma 32:40
Alma brings his teaching to its sharpest point:
》 “if we will not nourish the word… we can never pluck of the fruit of the tree of life.” 《
This is the ultimate consequence of neglect.
It is not merely that our faith weakens or withers—
we lose access to the very joy God intends for us.
Alma ties our daily choices to the eternal symbol of the tree of life, the same tree Lehi saw, the same tree Nephi longed for, the same tree whose fruit is “most precious” and “most desirable.”
When we neglect our faith, three things unfold.
1. We stop looking forward with an eye
of faith
Alma says the nourishment we withhold is not just prayer or scripture—it is hope, anticipation, desire.
Neglect shifts our gaze:
▪︎ we stop expecting God to act
▪︎ we stop believing the fruit is real
▪︎ we stop reaching for what
God is offering
When we lose our forward-looking faith, we lose our spiritual momentum.
2. We lose access to the fruit of
the tree of life
Alma’s language is absolute:
》 “ye can never pluck of the fruit…” 《
Not because God withholds it.
Not because the fruit is out of reach.
But because we stop reaching.
The fruit represents:
▪︎ joy
▪︎ healing
▪︎ revelation
▪︎ forgiveness
▪︎ belonging
▪︎ eternal life
Neglect closes our hands to what God is trying to place in them.
3. We miss the joy we were meant to receive
This is the deepest tragedy of neglect.
We were meant to taste the fruit.
We were meant to feel its sweetness.
We were meant to be filled with God’s love.
But when we refuse to nourish the word, we cut ourselves off from the very blessings God is eager to give.
Neglect doesn’t just weaken us—it robs us of joy.
Cross‑Reference Theme: Tree of Life
These passages echo Alma’s warning by showing what the fruit represents and what is lost when we turn away.
📜 9 And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
📒 1 Nephi 8:12 — “it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy”
The fruit is joy—neglect keeps us from tasting it.
📒 1 Nephi 11:22 — “the love of God… most desirable above all things”
The fruit is God’s love—neglect distances us from it.
📒 1 Nephi 11:25 — “the fountain of living waters… a representation of the love of God”
The tree and the fountain are one—neglect cuts us off from living water.
📜 22 And I said unto them: It was a representation of the tree of life.
📜 28 And I said unto them that it was an awful gulf, which separated the wicked from the tree of life, and also from the saints of God.
🗝 36 Wherefore, the wicked are rejected from the righteous, and also from that tree of life, whose fruit is most precious and most desirable above all other fruits; yea, and it is the greatest of all the gifts of God. And thus I spake unto my brethren. Amen.
These verses show that Alma’s warning is not about punishment—it is about lost possibility.
When Nourishment Opens the Way to the Tree of Life
Alma teaches that if we refuse to nourish the word, we lose the ability to partake of the fruit of the tree of life. We stop looking forward with faith, we stop reaching for God’s promises, and we miss the joy He longs to give us. But the hope remains: the moment we begin to nourish the word again, the path to the tree opens, our desire awakens, and the fruit becomes possible once more.
My Witness of God’s Restoring Power
I know that God honors every small effort we make to nourish His word. I have felt the difference between a heart that drifts and a heart that turns back toward Him. Each time I have chosen to pray, to remember, to repent, or to trust, He has met me with more strength than I offered. I know the seed is good. I know the fruit is real. I know that Christ’s love is the power that softens barren ground and restores what we thought was lost. He has done this for me again and again, and I know He will do it for all of us who choose to nourish the word He plants in our hearts. Amen.
The Seed Is Living and the Fruit Is Within Reach
Alma’s teaching is not a warning meant to frighten us but an invitation meant to awaken us. He shows us that faith is not fragile—it is responsive. It grows the moment we feed it and withers only when we withhold nourishment. The seed is living. The ground can change. The fruit is still within reach. Our spiritual life is not determined by past neglect but by present desire. If we will look forward with an eye of faith, even a small one, God will meet us with abundance. The tree of life is not a distant symbol; it is the promise of what God can grow in us right now.
God Brings Life Back to Barren Places
Alma teaches that neglect weakens faith, hardens our ground, and keeps us from the fruit God longs to give us. But he also teaches that the moment we begin to nourish the word again—with prayer, remembrance, obedience, and trust—our ground softens, our desire awakens, and the path to the tree of life opens before us. The seed is good. The fruit is desirable. And God stands ready to bring life back into every barren place within us.
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