Faith

This is an assignment for my Mission Prep class where we just needed to pick a gospel topic and write about it, with some sources from the scriptures.  I chose faith and thought I would just share what I wrote.  Feel free to post your own opinions and comments and what not!  

Faith

Many people talk about faith in the gospel of Christ and how it is important in order to live a happy life.  What I think people don’t realize is how it is the basic foundation of the gospel and without it, everything is obsolete. 

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb. 11:1)  Faith is belief something that cannot be seen.  It is taking the words heard on Sunday from leaders and having faith in the gospel to apply it to our lives.  It is following commandments given, even when you do not necessarily understand or agree, because you know that God knows all and loves you.  It is living in a world full of tangible things and dedicating your life to that which is intangible and cannot be seen with the human eye. 

When you have faith in Christ and in God’s plan for you, the gospel and the commandments given to you all make sense.  You are given that eternal perspective and that perspective makes everything else fall into place.  You know God’s plan and you see what will keep you from Him and what will bring you closer to Him.  Ultimate, perfect faith gives you power to live the teachings of the gospel without fail.  Because we are human and are in a fallen state faced to deal with our natural man, this perfect faith is not constant or even attainable at the moment.  While we live in a world filled with temptations that are right in our faces, ready to give us temporary pleasure and having our natural man crave that while being at war with our spiritual self, it is inevitable that mistakes will be made and that our faith will waver.  When that desperate father brought his possessed boy to Christ begging him to heal him, Christ told him, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible.”  The father replied back in tears “Lord, I believe.  Help thou mine unbelief.”  And then Christ healed his son. (Mark 9:23-24)  Christ understands that we are human and striving for perfection and thus has great mercy on us.  He knows that our faith is not always the strongest and provides us with support so that we may grow our faith and believe in Him because “If thou canst believe, all things are possible.”

            There are many things that Christ has given us that we must actually do to increase our faith, because “faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” (James 2:17)  If we pray to Him to have faith, He will bless us.  Christ said, “Whatsoever things ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is good, in faith believing that ye shall receive, behold, it shall be done unto you.” (Moroni 7:26)  Obedience to the commandments that God has given us also increases our faith.  As we live the gospel and see the blessings coming into our lives from it, it strengthens our faith and becomes easier to follow the commandments.  He has given us them for a reason, for us to have the greatest happiness in our lives and to return back to Him.  Study of the scriptures is also very important because the lessons of the prophets of old have great worth and have been brought forth in our time to be a strength and support to us in these last days.  All of these works help strengthen our faith in Christ, but all of it starts with a desire.  If someone does not desire to have faith, it will not grow.  All the things above already take a certain amount of faith to do, especially when expecting results and blessings from God.  He has said “I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say…” (D&C 82:10) but to do the things which He says, it takes faith and a desire for faith. 

            God loves every one of us.  He put us on this earth knowing how imperfect we would be and how quick to forget of His gospel we would be.  He knew we would grow as we developed our faith in Him, being on the other side of the veil with no remembrance of our lives before.  As we desire and work with that desire for faith, we will receive blessings from the Lord and have the strength to follow His commandments so we can be clean to live with Him again, just as He has planned for us.