Skip to main content

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. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Realization

A little seed was planted in my heart when I was a teenager going to seminary. I decided during the year we were learning about the Book of Mormon that I wanted to know for myself if it was true. When I prayed about it, nothing spectacular happened, but I felt a unique feeling of peace that I hadn't felt before. Now that it's been over 20 years later, I can say that every time I've read the Book of Mormon, that belief that it is true has become stronger and stronger. This year I decided to get a special Book of Mormon that has space to write on each page. I set a goal to take the time to ponder what I have read and write down what I understand, or what the Spirit tells me. I have read this book many times and have learned a lot already, but this time has felt so different. I have been able to understand so much more. There are days when I want to hurry and read the next chapter to catch up and not take the extra time to ponder and write, but I have made myself do it anyways...

War - Force or Freedom

I have been looking at war in a different way lately. This quote from Spencer W. Kimball struck me when I heard it today and I wanted to share it here ( June 1976 First Presidency Message ): "In spite of our delight in defining ourselves as modern, and our tendency to think we possess a sophistication that no people in the past ever had—in spite of these things, we are, on the whole, an idolatrous people—a condition most repugnant to the Lord. "We are a warlike people, easily distracted from our assignment of preparing for the coming of the Lord. When enemies rise up, we commit vast resources to the fabrication of gods of stone and steel—ships, planes, missiles, fortifications—and depend on them for protection and deliverance. When threatened, we become antienemy instead of pro-kingdom of God; we train a man in the art of war and call him a patriot, thus, in the manner of Satan’s counterfeit of true patriotism, perverting the Savior’s teaching: "'Lov...

In The Arms of Safety

  16  And thus a mercy can satisfy the demands of b justice , and encircles them in the arms of safety, while he that exercises no faith unto repentance is exposed to the whole law of the demands of c justice ; therefore only unto him that has faith unto repentance is brought about the great and eternal d plan of e redemption . The key phrase in this scripture that I love is "in the arms of safety."  I have been given the path to feel safe in Jesus Christ's arms. I am very grateful for the physical safety I enjoy every day, but I am also grateful for the spiritual safety I can enjoy when I follow Jesus Christ. When I'm following his footsteps as best as i can, I feel that safety. It is a gift that He has given me and everyone. Of course, it isn't easy and it requires faith in the atonement and Jesus Christ, but the joy you can feel doing it is worth it.