FAITH-
The Apostle Paul taught that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews11:1; see footnote b). Alma made a similar statement: “If ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true” (Alma 32:21). Faith is a principle of action and power. Whenever you work toward a worthy goal, you exercise faith. You show your hope for something that you cannot yet see. (True To The Faith)
The past few days I have been seeing a lot of quotes in the form of memes or status updates about faith. It got me to thinking about my mission theme, see the title of this post. During my mission and especially since then I have written in a journal many scriptures and quotes pertaining to this topic.
You see, I feel like I have always struggled to have faith in most things and situations. People always say that my faith is strong. I guess when I think about it, I am strong in my faith in some things and weak in many others.
As a missionary I really struggled with feelings of inferiority. I didn't feel like I had adequate knowledge to share the Gospel with those I came in contact with. Don't get me wrong, I have a testimony and I know the basics, but in a way I felt like I was learning as much or more than what I was teaching. Every day I would pray for the strength to get through the day using what little faith I felt I had that the Lord would help me get through.
Throughout my mission we had several zone conferences dedicated to faith. The first time I heard the theme was at a zone conference a few weeks prior to starting my trial mission. I had the opportunity to meet the mission president and his wife the night before they held a zone conference in Price, Utah, about 30 miles or so from where I live. After we met Pres. Brown invited me to the zone conference to get an idea of what to expect and also to meet some of the other missionaries.
Right now I can't remember a lot of details but I remember hearing the quote, "Replace every fearful thought with an act of faith." There was also a scripture that went with it; 2 Timothy 1:7 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. I wrote this quote and scripture on a sticky note and hung it on my wall and put it in my scriptures. I tried to read it especially when I was having a hard time during my mission.
Since my mission it has helped me as well. I still have a hard time exercising my faith in a lot of ways but I am learning that faith is the biggest tool we have in our fight against the bad things that happen, namely faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ. After all we are taught that He is always there. That He will guide us if we just show as much faith as a mustard seed.
My mom is always reminding us of the mustard seed. Think about it! How big is a mustard seed? Almost too small to see, right? If that is all it takes, why is it so hard?
Another scripture in Alma 32 states, "But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.
"Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me."
Notice the bold underlined letters? I had a seminary teacher point this out to me. The way you know your faith is growing spells out the word SEED.
A quote I found on Pinterest from Henry B. Eyring says, "Acting on even a twig of faith allows God to grow it."
I guess I could go on and on. I'm not sure what I was trying to get across with this post. I still feel like my faith is small but I am trying to exercise it and make it grow. I know that is the best way to overcome the trials and adversities in my life. I just have to have faith.
To end this post I am going to share some of my favorite quotes about faith. I wanted to share the words to a Primary song but it is copyrighted so if you want to read them it is called Faith and it is page 96 in the current Children's Songbook, or you can find it at www.lds.org.
"Faith is seeing light with your heart when all your eyes see is darkness."
"Let your faith be bigger than your fear"
"Faith is trusting God even when you don't understand His plan."
"Faith: it does not make things easy it makes them possible."
"Take time to build faith to be ready to face the trials that life brings. We need to nourish our faith so that it will take us through some of the darker days, the days that are full of trials."
“First and forever fan the flame of your faith, because all things are possible to them that believe.” -Elder Jeffrey R. Holland