On faith

A recent sacrament meeting talk -

I had a good anecdote to start, but halfway through writing this, decided that it sounded better at the end. So when you get there.... imagine the end here.

Faith is not always easy to come by. There are many examples in the scriptures of individuals that are given powerful testimonies of the power and authority of the priesthood of God, but could not exercise even a small amount of faith when confronted with difficult circumstances. Laman and Lemuel received the following direct testimonies of the Lord. From 1 Nephi 3 - ... behold, an angel of the Lord came and stood before them, and he spake unto them. From 1 Nephi 7 - ... (Nephi) prayed unto the Lord, saying, O Lord, according to my faith which is in thee, wilt thou deliver me from the hands of my brethren.... and it came to pass that when I had said these words, behold, the bands were loosed from off my hands and feet. From 1 Nephi 17 ..It came to pass that I stretched forth my hand unto my brethren, and they did not wither before me; but the Lord did shake them, even according to the word which he had spoken. Even if these direct witnesses of the spirit were not enough, they also received constant confirmation from God that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them. The Lord told them to get the plates from Laban – they said it couldn’t be done. Then they got the plates. The Lord told Nephi to build a boat – they said he couldn’t do it – then he did it. Now – if you looked at a man who was 25 years old with cancerous tumours in his abdomen, brain, lungs and testicles who was given a 40% chance of survival – and he were to tell you that he not only planned on beating his cancer, but that he was going to enter one of the toughest endurance events in the world, and that not only would he complete it, but win it. You might scoff in disbelief, like Laman and Lemuel – the first time. If he had gone ahead and done it – you might give him the benefit of the doubt the next time – and certainly the time after. By the time Lance Armstrong won his seventh Tour de France – no-one was scoffing. The Lord knows that it is difficult to believe, even when we are given tangible evidence of his divinity and will concerning us. He gives us every opportunity to believe – upon his resurrection, Christ said to his disciple Thomas “reach hither thy finger and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing”. While we do not have the same opportunity to speak face to face with Christ, or to see the finger of God descending from heaven as did the brother of Jared, we are given instruction from the Lord as to how we can test our faith in him.

In Malachi, we read – “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” The choice of the word “prove” is a demonstration of our Heavenly Father’s willingness to be tested – to prove is to demonstrate that something is true. The payment of a fair and honest tithe is one of the purest demonstrations of faith in our Lord that we can make. While other commandments of God, such as the Word of Wisdom, have value of a temporal nature that can be demonstrated by science, the rewards of the law of tithing are only recognised by living it. And in addition to the law of tithing having eternal rewards as we read of in D+C 64;23, that he that is tithed shall not be burned at his coming, there are temporal rewards as well. It’s usually at this time that you would hear a moving and stirring personal experience of how the law of tithing has been proved in a very direct way – sorry to disappoint, but the only testimony that I have regarding the law of tithing is that since I have paid tithing, my family has never wanted for food, for a roof over our heads, or indeed for many of the comforts of life, in addition to the essentials. And more importantly , I have an absolute faith that for as long as I obey this commandment of the Lord, this will continue to be the case.

Further, we have the promise given in Moroni that if we will ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if the gospel of Jesus Christ are not true, and that if we ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto us, by the power of the Holy Ghost. So the question is – how do we gain faith, and get a sincere heart?

We need to prepare ourselves in order to have faith. In the gospel of Matthew, Christ teaches his disciples about faith with the parable of the sower. Behold, a sower went forth to sow. And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up. Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up, and choked them. But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit. Who has ears to hear, let him hear. I’m working on my garden at the moment, and the truth that I have learned that it is hard, that gardening needs to be done constantly! Simply because a patch of ground starts out good, doesn’t mean that it will stay that way without work! Sowing seeds once does not mean that we will get a new harvest every year without work. We need to constantly till the ground, to make sure that it doesn’t become rocky, and that the roots of the gospel will be deep in our hearts. We need to consistently weed out the noxious thorns that are the cares of the world that distract us from matters of eternal importance. And just like in real life – the thorns and weeds grow more quickly than the wholesome plants, at least in my garden! They grow with or without fertiliser, whether it’s sunny or raining. The snails will go around the weeds to get to my struggling seedlings....literally, in the case, not metaphorically. We need to make our hearts constantly ready to receive witnesses of the Spirit that will strengthen our faith, because we don’t always from where they will come. Of course... it’s not by coincidence that the things that we do to keep our hearts fertile and ready to receive the Spirit – or the things we do to prepare to exercise faith – are often the things that will give us faith. Fasting, praying, reading the Scriptures, sharing our testimony with those who share our faith, and even more so with those who do not.

We can choose to have faith. A quote that is usually attributed to Einstein states that there are only two ways to live your life – One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is. What I take from this is that to those who choose to exercise faith, their faith is justified – even if their faith is reluctant and often regardless of worthiness to receive God’s miracles. When Naaman chose to swallow his pride, and listen to the words of the servant of the prophet of God, he was rewarded – and he magnified his faith and testified to all that would hear “Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel.” For those that do not choose to exercise faith, no miracle will be great enough. Though Laman and Lemuel saw and witnessed things that would astound all of us, they had no faith in their hearts. There were Israelites who had such little faith, and such hardness of heart that when bitten by a poisonous serpent (which, by the way, was only inflicted by the Lord upon the Israelites because of their murmurings), that when all that had to be done was to look at a brass serpent that Moses placed on a pole, there were those that refused to look.

Regardless of any obstacles placed in our way by the world, and regardless of any clever arguments raised by those who do not share our faith, we are blessed by the Lord to have the free agency to choose to believe in Him. Even more so, we are blessed to live in a country where we can worship God openly, rather than solely in our hearts. As spoken by Bishop Edgley, First Counsellor of the presiding bishopric, There is much that I do not know. I do not know the details of the organization of matter into the beautiful world we live in. I do not understand the intricacies of the Atonement, how the Savior’s sacrifice can cleanse all repentant people, or how the Savior could suffer “the pain of all men” (D&C 18:11). I do not know where the city of Zarahemla was, as referred to in the Book of Mormon. I do not know why my beliefs sometimes conflict with assumed scientific or secular knowledge. Perhaps these are matters our Father in Heaven described as the “mysteries … of heaven” (D&C 107:19) that will be revealed at a later date.

But while I don’t know everything, I know the important. I know the plain and simple gospel truths that lead to salvation and exaltation. I know that the Savior did suffer the pain of all men and that all repentant people can be cleansed from sin. And what I don’t know or don’t completely understand, with the powerful aid of my faith, I bridge the gap and move on, partaking of the promises and blessings of the gospel. If we choose to believe that everything is a miracle, and comes to us from God, then our challenges can become blessings.

This says to me – don’t pray for miracles, or to have those unanswerable questions answered – pray for faith without requiring miracles. The Lord said to Thomas “because thou has seen me, thou has hast believed ‘ blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”

Think that, it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. Think that, the Lord giveth no challenge or trial unto the children of man, save that he should prepare a way that they can overcome it. I am grateful for every affliction that seems to me insurmountable, because I know that the Lord has faith in me, that I can overcome it. While watching the Biggest Loser on TV at the moment, I’m struck by the role that personal trainers play – to push people to achieve things that they would otherwise think is impossible. Don’t doubt that the Lord will push us from time to time as well – Abraham didn’t know how great his faith was in the Lord, until the Lord showed him through the commandment to sacrifice Isaac. If you do choose to have faith, there is no tragedy that can take it away – Job is our example of this. If you don’t choose to have faith – there is no miracle that will be great enough to give it you.

Bishop Edgley said;

When the disciples asked Jesus why they could not cast a devil out as they had just witnessed the Savior do, Jesus answered, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove” (Matthew 17:20). I have never witnessed the removal of an actual mountain. But because of faith I have seen a mountain of doubt and despair removed and replaced with hope and optimism. Because of faith I have personally witnessed a mountain of sin replaced with repentance and forgiveness. And because of faith I have personally witnessed a mountain of pain replaced with peace, hope, and gratitude. Yes, I have seen mountains removed.

When I was still in school, I was not a person of great faith in God. In fact, I and most of my friends thought that belief in something that could not be seen, felt or heard was pretty stupid. My best friend at the time was dating a devoutly religious girl and he surprised me one day by telling me that he was coming to have a belief in God. When I asked how that could be, he told me that when he was younger, he didn’t believe in overseas. He thought that stories about Europe and Africa were just as made up as Narnia or Middle-Earth. We laughed over this, but then he explained believing in God was just like believing in overseas. At first it’s enough to read and hear stories, but eventually, if you’re really going to believe in “overseas”, you have to pack a bag, buy a ticket, and see if for yourself.

We need to buy a ticket to faith, every day. It is that Pearl of Great Price, that for those of us blessed enough to discover it, and recognise its worth, that we do not hesitate to purchase it with everything we own. And at that price, it is still cheap. The only currency that we have with the Lord is a broken heart, and a contrite spirit. The rest of the price has been paid already with the blood and tears of our brother, Jesus Christ. Brothers and Sisters, I urge you to choose faith, and do so in the holy name of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, Amen.