Faith

"If ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true" (Alma 32:21). Faith is the basis of our religion and is vital to our spiritual growth. We are constantly displaying our faith in everything we do. Faith is a principle of action and power. A perfect example of faith is the faith our prophet Joseph Smith displayed as a young 14 year old boy when he entered into a grove of trees to pray. He went into that grove with faith knowing that his prayers would be answered. As we all know this was the beginning of something great. By exercising a little bit of faith that a prayer would be answered Joseph began the foundations for the religion that we all belong to today. We exercise faith when we pray or when we go to church on Sunday, we have faith that what we are doing is true. Faith is something that we all must learn and cultivate for ourselves. Faith is obtained and increased through individual obedience and righteous action.
If we are doing our best to keep the commandments and live righteous lives then not only are we doing what is right we are building our faith. We can develop our faith by studying the scriptures and the words of the latter day prophets. By continually studying the words of Christ we come to love them and find a place for them in our hearts where they can grow and increase our faith. How wonderful do we feel when because we were diligent in keeping the commandments we are blessed. This wonderful feeling of being blessed increases our faith. “Faith cometh not by signs but signs follow those that believe” (D&C 63:9).
It is hard to always have faith. I can think of many times when I was struggling with something and have been left to rely upon my faith. My most recent experience with this was my admissions process to BYU. For as long as I can remember I have wanted to attend Brigham Young University, so once my senior year of high school began I started to fill out the necessary paperwork to apply. I worked hard to make everything perfect for the priority deadline (I wanted every helping hand I could get in aiding my acceptance) on December 1st. Because of my hard work I was able to finish everything in time to turn it in. So I sent my papers away and waited. I waited and waited and nothing had come. My friend also had applied to BYU and had received a letter saying that he was accepted and while I was extremely happy for him I was also very sad because I had not yet received a letter. I took this as a sign that I was not meant to go to BYU so I began applying to other schools. I applied to Utah Valley University and was accepted and received scholarship money, because this all worked out this is where I felt I was supposed to be. But much to my surprise about a month after I had been accepted to UVU I received a letter from BYU saying that I had been accepted. I was so happy and thankful, I felt that the Lord was blessing me because of the faith that I had put into his will. One scripture stayed with me throughout this whole process. “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the things which he commandeth them” (1 Nephi 3:7).
In a talk given by Robert D. Hales I learned that we have to continually seek faith we can’t let things such as trials and temptations bring us down. We cannot find Enos-like faith without our own wrestle before God in prayer. I testify that the reward is worth the effort. Remember the pattern: (1) hear the word of God, spoken and written by His servants; (2) let that word sink deep into your heart; (3) hunger in your soul for righteousness; (4) obediently follow gospel laws, ordinances, and covenants; and (5) raise your voice in mighty prayer and supplication, asking in faith to know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. I promise that if you do these things sincerely and unceasingly, the words Christ spoke to His disciples will be fulfilled in your life: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matt. 7:7). All the answers you need are there you just have faith that they are there and then seek them out.
“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). Faith is not a perfect knowledge and you don’t always have to “know” something to have faith. “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 that 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). If you even have a desire to have faith the Lord will help you find it. He knows your heart and intentions and is delighted when we seek to follow him. Having faith is not always easy but this is one of the many trails we will go through in this life. If we can put forth the effort to believe, the Lord will help us do the rest.


Works Cited
http://scriptures.lds.org/
The Standard Works
Robert D. Hales, “Finding Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,” Ensign, Nov 2004, 70–73