Alma 35:6 "those who were in favor of the words....were cast out"

After Alma, Amulek, and their brethren had finished teaching the gospel to the Zoramites, those that believed were treated very poorly by the rest of their people, and they were cast out of the land.  I was reminded that exercising faith unto repentance and obedience does not always produce what appears on the outside to be a beneficial result.  These people were cast out.  The people of Ammonihah were burned.  The people who followed Alma the Elder had to flee and were eventually in bondage.  Why does the Lord allow people to have so much affliction when they are trying to follow Him?  At face value, it would seem these accounts might discourage us from turning to the Lord!  But, if we keep in mind what the Lord is trying to do for us, the purpose of us being on earth, it makes a little more sense.  As we turn to Him, sometimes He gives us greater opportunities to exercise faith and to become more like Him.  Sometimes He allows us to have additional trials to further strengthen us.  Sometimes He lets us suffer afflictions to strengthen others.  When we truly have charity, we are ok with that (e.g., the people of Ammon being slain and touching the hearts and sparking the conversion of more Lamanites than had been slain).  Sometimes, like in this example, He lets the wicked exercise their agency and cause affliction of the righteous.  But He always delivers us spiritually as we exercise faith.  And He often delivers us temporally if we exercise faith.  As we become truly converted, we learn to trust in His deliverance, whatever that may be.  The deliverance that really matters is the deliverance from the chains of Satan that bind our hearts and keep us from reaching our full potential.  Not deliverance from difficulties in life.  Often these difficulties help us be more fully delivered spiritually.  And when we turn to the Lord, we always prosper in the ways that truly matter - we become more like Him, and we experience greater inner love, peace and joy.