“We’re not going to survive in this world, temporally or spiritually, without increased faith in the Lord—and I don’t mean a positive mental attitude—I mean downright solid faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the one thing that gives vitality and power to otherwise rather weak individuals.” This significant thought is from a 1986 talk by Elder A. Theodore Tuttle. A positive mental attitude is valuable, important, and often necessary. Faith is more powerful than the most positive of attitudes.
Faith in Jesus Christ ensures survival
A story from Elder Tuttle’s talk illustrates that power. This was a conversation between a Primary teacher and the 11-year-old class.
“Suppose the Lord asked you to build a spaceship big enough to take you and your family and provisions off this planet? Could you do it?”
Steve spoke up and said, “Yes.”
And the teacher said, “Have you ever built a spaceship?”
“No.”
“Have you ever built a model spaceship?”
“No.”
“Have you ever seen one?”
Steve said, “Yes, on TV.” But then he declared, “you said the Lord told me to build it. If the Lord told me to build it, I could do it.”
The faith of Nephi
When the Lord told Nephi to go up to the mountain. he obeyed and he described what happened there., “And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto me, saying: Thou shalt construct a ship, after the manner which I shall show thee, that I may carry thy people across these waters.” Nephi’s faith-filled response was, “Lord, whither shall I go that I may find ore to molten, that I may make tools to construct the ship after the manner which thou hast shown unto me?” Instead of questioning whether he could build a ship, he began reviewing his resources and recognized that he lacked some key items. He knew that the Lord could help him get those resources so he asked for help.
Nephi’s faith came from a lifetime of learning, hoping, believing, and acting.
When Nephi returned from the mountain and told his brothers what he had been instructed to do, they scoffed at the idea. Nephi’s response to his brothers’ reaction to him teaches how this type of faith is developed. He reminded them of several examples where faithful followers exercised faith and accomplished seemingly impossible things. He started with the parting of the Red Sea as the Egyptians were closing it. He mentioned manna in the wilderness, water from the rock, the pillar of fire at night, and the cloud during the day, the stopping of the river Jordan as the priests’ feet touched the water. He also reminded them about the brazen serpent that required only faith to look at it and be healed of the attacks of the fiery flying serpents.
Trial of our faith
Remembering history is one way to gain assurance that develops faith. To the many people anciently, people today, and people in the future who have not and will not believe and exercise faith because they did not personally witness the miracles, Moroni taught, “And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith” Faith proceeds the miracle and we can expect miracles as we learn how to exercise faith.
The Mustard Seed
The biblical promise that if we “have faith as a grain of mustard seed,” we can move mountains is usually thought of as the amount of faith. A mustard seed is very small and even with a small amount of faith we can accomplish great achievements. That comparison is certainly true.
Consider the faith exhibited by a mustard seed. Its mother plant produces it and the wind or birds or some other means take it to the soil. Many of these seeds never become mustard plants but all do everything they can to germinate and grow. They never stop exercising their faith that they will succeed. We do not need a large amount of faith to act, we only need enough to act. When Alma was teaching the Zoramites on the hill called Onidah, he encouraged them to exercise a particle of faith even if they could no more than desire to believe. God is waiting for us to make even a slight movement toward exercising faith in Jesus Christ so He can begin to work with us.
The destroyer of our faith
Satan plants thoughts and images in our heads that affect our thinking, talking, and actions much like the malware that our devices get. When we use our devices to view, listen to, or play content on the Internet, our devices download data. Malware can be added to the data our devices download. We may even choose to intentionally download data. Those are the most common times when we add malware to our devices.
The malware Satan puts into our memories is the same as the malware from the Internet, He can use it to influence our thoughts and eventually our words and actions. His malware can have us doubt the words of the Prophets or those of our parents and teachers. They can cause us to ignore the whisperings of the Holy Ghost. Only through faith in Jesus Christ and relying on His grace, His enabling power, can we have the effects of Satan’s malware cast out of our hearts but not our memories. Removing malware from our memories is impossible because memories can be recalled.
Overcoming Satan's influence
To avoid recalling improper memories we must choose to avoid exposing our minds to the same influences that placed the thoughts and images in our memories. Choices to avoid rekindling old memories also require the enabling power of Jesus Christ because this is also a miracle that we cannot do on our own.
From Alma 32 we learn three significant points about faith:
Faith is hope for things that are not seen but which are true
Faith is a desire to believe
As faith grows it becomes knowledge
Hope that the promise of eternal life can be ours is the first act we do that starts us on the path of faith in Jesus Christ. The desire to believe is a choice not a condition of mortality. As we hope, desire, and act with faith in Jesus Christ, we gain knowledge that He lives and that His promises are real.
First Principle of the Gospel
Faith is the first principle of the gospel and does not stand alone as a saving principle. Repentance, baptism, and receiving the Holy Ghost are also our first steps on our paths to eternal life.
In 1 Corinthians 13:2 we learn that “though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.” The pure love of Christ does not come naturally but requires nourishment and constant attention.
We can consider faith as our doorway to knowledge, power, and miracles. Once we exercise the courage to act on faith in Jesus Christ and not our own knowledge and power, we enter through a portal to eternal joys beyond our imaginations.
In Hebrews 11 several examples of people who exercised faith are described and explained with the statement” Now faith is the substance (assurance) of things hoped for, the evidence (proof) of things not seen.”
To know the truth, we must do as Moroni instructed in Moroni 10. “Ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ,”
Each of us must measure our own sincerity. If we need to improve our sincerity, we can ask for the enabling power of Jesus Christ to help us achieve a more sincere heart, Real intent is similar to sincerity with additional emphasis on taking thought before we ask much like Oliver Cowdry when he wanted to translate.
To have faith in Christ we must learn to set aside our pride and vain ambitions, allowing us to rely only on Christ for the blessings we seek.
Faith in us or faith in Jesus Christ?
Elder Wilford W. Andersen, of the Seventy, shared insight into a faith that distinguishes between faith in ourselves and faith in Jesus Christ. He suggested two levels of faith—first, the faith to thrust in our sickles, and second, the faith to reap. When they went to get the brass plates, Laman and Lemuel had the faith to try (sow or thrust in their sickles). Nephi had the faith to reap because he relied on the Lord to accomplish the task. Elder Anderson stated, “First, unlike the faith to thrust in our sickles, the faith to reap is not faith in ourselves. It is not the same as self-confidence or positive mental attitude. The faith to reap is faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement. It is faith in His power, not ours.”
Having faith to reap means we must align our desires and objectives with the will of God as explained in Moroni 7:31 “And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me” James taught that “faith without works is dead.”
In his article, Elder Anderson related the following.
“I heard a story about a father who noticed his young daughter kneeling beside her bed, praying that Heavenly Father would protect little birds from entering a bird trap her brother had built and placed in the backyard. Later that day, the father grew concerned. He knew the trap was a good one. He had helped his son build it.
‘I heard you praying this morning that Heavenly Father would protect the little birds from your brother’s trap,’ he said to his daughter. ‘But sometimes sad things happen even when we pray that they won’t.’
She responded, ‘I just know he won’t catch any birds, Daddy.’
‘I admire your faith, sweetheart,’ the father said. ‘But if he does catch some birds, I hope that won’t hurt your faith.’
‘He won’t, Daddy,’ she said. ‘I know he won’t.’
The father asked, ‘How can you have such great faith?’ ‘Because after I said my prayers,’ his daughter replied, ‘I went out back and kicked his bird trap all to pieces.’
We cannot expect the Lord to guide our footsteps if we’re not willing to move our feet.”
What Shall I Do?
Elder Bednar shared the following. “True faith is focused in and on the Lord Jesus Christ and always leads to righteous action. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that ‘faith [is] the first principle in revealed religion, and the foundation of all righteousness’ and that it is also ‘the principle of action in all intelligent beings’ (Lectures on Faith [1985], 1). Action alone is not faith in the Savior, but acting in accordance with correct principles is a central component of faith.” While speaking of Joseph’s prayer in the Sacred Grove, Elder Bednar also taught, “Joseph’s questions focused not just on what he needed to know but also on what was to be done! His prayer was not simply, “Which church is right?” His question was, “Which church should I join?” Joseph went to the grove to ask in faith, and he was determined to act.”
Conclusion
While these few words about faith in Jesus Christ illustrate how essential it is for our benefit now and throughout eternity, they are mere introductions. To come to know Jesus Christ we must learn to exercise faith in his promises and rely on his grace and not our own abilities to cause the miraculous changes we need. I pray that we will all better learn not only how to sow but also how to reap.
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