THE STRENGTH OF FAITH

 

Stop Doubting and Believe by Mindi Oaten

True faith can never show its strength in the absence of resistance. Resistance comes when nothing is going right, when your pain is at its highest level, when fulfilment of God’s promises is slow in coming, when your friends sew doubts in your mind, when God seems far away and you feel abandoned…..

Resistance comes when your trust in God needs to be tested. I discovered that you can have faith in God and His existence and even in a multitude of proofs of His love but you can still waver in your trust of Him. For fifty years since I joined the Church, I thrived in my faith in God  and then my health was taken away and the real test came. The resistance manifested itself through trust. I had to ask myself many times if I trusted in everything I believed about Him.

In Lecture 3 of Lectures On Faith, Joseph Smith said that “three things are necessary in order that any rational and intelligent being may exercise faith in God unto life and salvation”: 1. The idea that He actually exists; 2. A correct idea of His character, perfections, and attributes; and 3. An actual knowledge that the course of life which he is pursuing is according to His will.

Some years ago I decided to follow up on this advice and studied the Book of Mormon that year looking for the Saviour’s attributes and traits within its pages. I wanted to know Him. I wrote what I came across in the margins of the book. When I had finished I flicked through the book and I found two particular attributes on just about every page. They told me that the Saviour was merciful and that He always fulfils His promises.

Trusting the mercy has been an easy one but fulfilment of promises is much harder, for two reasons…..1. we do not know HOW  He will fulfil His promise as our ways are not God’s ways (Isaiah 55:8) and 2. We do not know WHEN the fulfilment will come as the Lord works on a different time schedule for ‘all is as one day with God and time only is measured unto men’ (Alma 40:8).

When the promised something is not happening, especially when you are in dire need, the resistance steps in whispering doubts. I have been there, I know. Instead of stepping up my faith in the face of resistance, my faith has wavered through questions such as: do I really know Him? Do I really trust Him? Does He really love me? Does he want the best for me? Well, yes that last one could go either way. He always wants the best for you and you might not know how that best is going to play out in the fulfilment of his promise. Another consideration is that His priority is our eternal ‘best’ opposed to the ‘best’ here and now.

I have a testimony that the strength of our faith indeed brings about rewards from heaven. When I was going through my divorce some years ago, I was in terrible emotional pain. It felt like it was going to rip my chest open. That was the time I delved into the scriptures and studied about the Atonement because I was convinced that only God could take that pain away.

For weeks I prayed ‘through my faith in Jesus Christ and the power of the Atonement’ for a healing of my broken heart. Every time I experienced a wave of pain throughout the day, I would utter the same prayer calling upon the power of the Atonement to heal me. Never once did I think it could not happen or that it would not happen. My faith was infallible despite the unrelenting pain.  I persisted and persisted and after some weeks the pain was gone. All my negative emotions towards my ex-husband disappeared and I was able to embrace him and his new life and move on with mine.

Some years ago I was going through a difficult time and as I was studying the scriptures one day, looking for answers, into my mind came a voice which said: “You were fearless in your pre-mortality.”  I was rather stunned and answered: “It was easy then. Here it is harder because I have to walk by faith.” The voice came back: “Nevertheless, this is what is needful. This is why you are here. You cannot become gods without faith which creates reality.”

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

MANIFESTING POWER OF FAITH

 

“If all the sick for whom we pray were healed, if all the righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled and the basic principle of the gospel, free agency, would be ended. No man would have to live by faith.

“If joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously given the doer of good, there would be no evil – all would do good but not because of the rightness of doing good. There would be no test of strength, no development of character, no growth of powers, no free agency, only satanic controls.

“Should all prayers be immediately answered according to our desires and our limited understanding, then there would be little or no suffering, sorrow, disappointment, or even death, and if these were not, there would also be no joy, success, resurrection, nor eternal life and godhood.”

-          President Spencer, W. Kimball, “Faith Precedes the Miracle”, p 97

In all that President Kimball said here, the test of strength, development of character and growth of power is the most significant. 

A few years ago I wrote a post on the social media extolling the virtues of Christ’s grace and His power to save us, but not only in regards to our overall salvation, but in every aspect of our lives. I basically attacked the often repeated phrase of our day, “you are enough”. I said we are never enough without Him.  My comments highly aggravated one reader who commented to me that I was wrong to be making people believe in and rely on a person they couldn’t even see. She said when she needed something to happen in her life, she gathered up all her strength and she went ahead and did it, not relying on anyone else. I thought at the time that this was her way of denying the existence and power of Christ. I replied that I don't have the power to make anyone do anything, it is up to the individual what they believe and do.

I have learnt since then there is some truth in this. I had come to the point where my faith in God became the only thing I relied on, to the denial of my own power. I have learnt of late that sometimes we rely on God far too much to do things for us, to rescue us from situations we don’t like, to heal our cracks, to make every situation better….and when He doesn’t we question His goodness, His mercy and even, in the end, His existence.

Imagine if God did everything for us. We would remain like toddlers for eternity, relying on a parent for our very existence. Sometimes we forget that we are here to rise to the status of a god. Some years ago I received an understanding that we are here to learn to harness the power of faith, without which we cannot become gods…..but not just any faith. The faith that we are to have in our control is manifesting faith. This is the power of the individual.

This is manifesting faith…. It is speaking the Word and creation comes into being (John 1:1-3); it is sending forth the winds, the rains and the floods from your mouth and controlling the elements according to your will (Ether 2:24); it is cursing the fig tree and watching it wither as you speak (Matthew 21:19,20); it is speaking to the tempest waves of the sea and watch it become still (Mark 4:39). It is seeing the end result in your mind and bringing it into being.

Brother of Jared learnt this lesson well when he presented 16 stones to the Lord and saw His finger light them up (Ether 3: 4-6) and when he ‘said unto the mountain Zerin, “remove” – it was removed.’ (Ether 12: 30). If God exercised His power in our behalf constantly, we would never come to learn of the strength of our own power. Yes, there are things that are beyond us at times, when we can do something ourselves and when we have to rely on the Lord. The wisdom is in knowing the difference. If we combined faith in ourselves and faith in God, we would be unstoppable.

Think about it…..Christ couldn’t walk for Peter on the sea of Galilee….He could only say: “Come” (Matthew 14:29)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Come by David Bowman)