F is for Faith

Faith. To have faith is a hope in things which are not seen which are true (see Hebrews 11:1 and Alma 32:21). "To have faith is to have confidence in someone and something or someone" and it "must be centered in Jesus Christ in order to produce salvation" (Bible Dictionary "Faith").

Faith is our first stepping block. It is because of faith that everything else is possible. Faith leads us to action. Faith leads us to repent using the atonement which leads us to the desire to be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, and then endure to the end.

Faith, as mentioned above, requires confidence. Confidence in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That He lives and that He is ready to help us do incredible things, that without Him would be impossible.

I'm reminded of a story from the Bible of Peter:

"And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray : and when the evening was come, he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer ; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid ; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith , wherefore didst thou doubt ? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased" (Matthew 14:22-32). 

Now there are several things that I just love about this story. The first is that Jesus waited until the fourth watch to go to his disciples. The had to endure the first three watches before Christ came. Similarly, our faith needs to be tested for "weak things become strong unto [us]" (Ether 12:27).

Next, I want to focus on Peter, who desired to walk on the water and come unto Christ. He started to walk on the water but when he looked away from the Savior, he began to sink. In this moment, he cries out to the Master and pleads for help and the Master stretches forth His hand.

In our own lives, we sometimes shift our focus off of the Savior. When we do so, we begin to sink. We must then cry out for His help and He will freely give it if we ask. However, even in crying out for help is exercising faith in Him who is mighty to save (2 Nephi 31:19).

We must remember though, our faith is what produces miracles and not the other way around. "The Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith" (Mosiah 23:21) and then according to our faith, we are blessed (see Matthew 9:29). In my life, my faith has been tried time and time again. My most faith building moments have most often come through my most difficult times in life. Interesting how that works.

My companion had an experience in her last area that proved to strengthen her faith despite the whirlwind it put her faith through. Here is what she said of the experience:

"It was a hot Saturday and my companion and I were contacting people in a neighborhood near where we lived just before lunch time.
We were walking down a sidewalk when we spied a man trimming his bushes in his front yard. He immediately caught our interest not just because we are missionaries and we talk to everyone, but because this man was trimming his bushes with a machete. 
So I called out to him and asked him what he was doing. He friendlily responded that he was trimming his bushes, and asked us if we wanted to try it. We answered in the affirmative (how many chances were we going to get to trim bushes, let alone with this cool sword thing!). He showed us how to hold it and swing it and we discovered his name was Scott.
After chatting for a bit, while swinging his machete around, Scott asked us who we were and why we were out and about. We told him we were missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and now Scott's interest was peaked. He told us of a good encounter he had with a Mormon who was a cop. He got out some lawn chairs and we sat and talked on his porch. The discussion we had, plus a few others we had with him after that, put many questions and doubts in my mind.
Scott, as it turned out, was a faith healer. Not the kind you see on TV who yell and lay hands on someone who faints, then jumps back up again screaming that they've been healed, but a very soft spoken one who lives 1 Corinthians 14:40 in all he does. Scott also didn't have a religious affiliation because he believed that God's church, in it's correct form wasn't on the earth. He had a kind of cynicism against churches because of man's corrupting touch (not an uncommon view today), but Scott lived his life according to the Bible.
In discussions with Scott, one couldn't deny the miracles he had experienced. Every time we would meet with him, he would tell us of those he met who were healed, his daughter's boyfriend with a broken leg being one of them. 
He would ask the person wanting to be healed two questions: "Do you believe in God?" and "Do you believe that God can heal you?" He would then pray in the name of Jesus Christ that they would be healed. There were quite a few who weren't healed but there were also many who were. There was no doubt that there was something to what he said.
As we read the scriptures with Scott, differences in interpretation became evident. We shared The Book of Mormon with him and explained that with the Bible and the Book of Mormon together, the fullness of the Gospel was on the earth and there was only one way to interpret the scriptures when both of these are put together (see 2 Nephi 3:12). We told him that the Book of Mormon is a second witness of Christ (see 2 Corinthians 13:1). It is evidence that we have modern day Prophets and Apostles who guide this church. They also ensure the interpretation of doctrine is not corrupted (see Ephesians 4:11-14). We invited him to read and to pray about the Book of Mormon and seek an answer from God, not man, if it was true (see Moroni 10:3-5 and James 1:5).
Unfortunately, he did not. Instead he went to places on the internet where man had thought they had proven that Joseph Smith wasn't a prophet. Scott shared with us the 'evidences' he had come up with, told us that we needed to rethink our position, and prayed with us before we left.
My faith was left a little shaken. Not from what he had shared with us about what he'd found--I had already know about it and was actually surprised that he had chosen something so little and inconsequential to base his decision off of. 
I had gathered a very big list of questions of the different fine points of doctrine that we discussed and the very fact that he had healed people without holding the Priesthood Authority to do so, which sparked even more questions.
Fortunately for me, I knew to whom I should ask these questions to--doubting my doubts first, before I doubted my faith (see "Come Join with Us" President Dieter F. Uchtdorf)
I first started with my testimony of the Book of Mormon. Examining it and recounting experiences I'd had with it. After several weeks, I came to the definite conclusion that I knew it was true, for there are countless times where I have felt the 'fruits of the spirit'(Galatians 5:22-23) when I had read it. I learned of the truthfulness of it by experience (see John 7:17).
Because I know that the Book of Mormon is true, I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I still have a few questions left unanswered about this experience with Scott, but since last summer I have read the scriptures, prayed, and received answers for a majority of them.
Day by day I'm continuing to have my questions answered as I 'experiment upon God's word' (Alma 32:27-29). I'm so grateful to know that God continues to speak--through a Prophet today, and to us personally."

So you see, our faith can be tested in many ways, but these moments of hardship and testing make weak things become strong unto us (Ether 12:27) and as we go forward in faith, we will truly see that our trials are more precious than gold (1 Peter 1:7) because they strengthen and mold us.

When we are patient through our trials, our faith grows and we find ourselves stronger than we were before. Faith doesn't mean we will never doubt, as we shift our glance away from the Savior as Peter did, but we must "doubt [our] doubts before [we] doubt [our] faith ("Come Join with Us" President Dieter F. Uchtdorf)