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How Important is Faith?

It seems like the Ensign has the right articles that I need to hear. Of course the conference ones are wonderful. I've never really read an entire Ensign magazine until recently. I didn't know how wonderful they were. There was actually an article this month called Coming to Know for Ourselves by Elder Kenneth Johnson. He said some good things that have been on my mind lately. So you should read it when you get a chance. There is a convenient link to it. 

It has been on mind lately that I need to know for sure what my faith is. It needs to be a faith that I have come to know myself and not borrowed from family or other church members. In Elder Johnson's article he says, "If our faith is rooted in the sandy soil of reason and logic, it will be swept away by a rising tide driven by the escalating winds of opposition. A faith founded in Jesus Christ and on the rock of revelation will endure through the fiercest storms of life (see Helaman 5:12)." 

I didn't realize how important our faith is. It is such a vital part of the Gospel. I've been reading Lectures of Faith prepared by Joseph Smith.  There is a lot in it that are obvious but you don't think about it. For example he says in the sixth lecture, 

"For doubt and faith do not exist in the same person at the same time; so that persons whose minds are under doubts and fears cannot have unshaken confidence; and where unshaken confidence is no there faith is weak; and where faith is weak the persons will not be able to contend against all the opposition, tribulations, and afflictions which they will have to encounter in order to be heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ Jesus; and they will grow weary in their minds, and the adversary will have power over them and destroy them."

This book is pretty deep and it is very thought provoking. I want to have more faith. It is so easy for our minds to doubt and rationalize things.  It's only by studying for ourselves and praying that we can have more faith and be fully converted to the Lord. 

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