Faith

I have been thinking of my faith lately. Its something that I seem to lack quite often. I have watched the video on forgiveness a few times now, and the man, Chris Williams, impresses me very much. As I consider what I might do in that situation, and I am not sure I could have the strength or faith to forgive as readily.



What is faith? We think of it being a belief. I believe many things, such as the earth is round, its bad to stick your fingers in power outlets, clouds are made out of water, and that cars don't run without gas. Because I believe these things I would sail across the ocean, I don't stick fingers in power outlets, I carry an umbrella on cloudy days, and pay part of my life savings to put gas in the car.

What makes faith in God different? Why is it considered so important that scriptures talk about it all the time, and its considered the base of all religion?

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1) Faith is like the footprint that is left behind. People believe in Bigfoot because they have found big foot prints. They believe him even thought they don't see Bigfoot, all they see is what he left behind. God leaves his marks everywhere. "All things denote there is a God" (Alma 30:44) We don't have to see God to believe in him, we just have to see where he has touched our lives.

"Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." (Alma 32:21) Hope, we hope the things that we believe are true. If we only hope for the things we know, then there isn't much to hope on.

"Faith is a principle of action and power. Whenever we work toward a worthy goal, we exercise faith. We show our hope for something that we cannot yet see." (Gospel Topics, lds.org) If we have a goal to lose 5 pounds (or 50) we start by trying to eat better and exercise more. Both are not much fun and can be rather painful. But we have faith that it will make a difference. We may have watched their effects on others, or watched the info-mercial with Chuck Norris testifying that is works. We exercise the faith that what they tell us is true because of his wash-bored six-pack testifying to us it really works.

For some reason when we see happy people, and they start talking about God, it doesn't have the same convincing power as Chuck Norris talking about the total gym. We might think is works for them, some way to tell themselves everything is alright. We can't take their testimony. But we too must exercise the faith that what they say is true, and they can have the Holy Ghost testify that it is true.

"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." (Alma 32:27)