Faith In My Journey ..

(Romans 12:3) For I say, through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgement, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.

Faith is a topic that is probably the most confused subject of all Christianity and especially, to me. Most people think that faith is a synonym for believe so they think that they have to believe something is so and it will be.  I will admit, I am still working on developing lasting faith.

Despite all of the negative challenges we have in life, we must take the time to actively exercise faith.  Elder Richard G. Scott in his talk, Make The Exercise of Faith Your First Priority, spoke of tools that are needed to increase faith; prayer, scripture study, family home evening and temple attendance.

The bible describes both faith and grace as being all-important parts of the salvation process.  My grandmother was not LDS but always spoke of being “saved by grace”.  I really never understood this until recently.  All through the scriptures, grace is portrayed as God’s unmerited favor.  It is God’s willingness to save us when we don’t deserve it. It is in His attitude of loving us first before we love Him back.  So saving grace is a gift of salvation from God that we can never deserve – or can we?

  

(Ephesians 2:8) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is a gift from God.

 

In my studies and prayer life, I have learned that grace, works and obedience are essential in obtaining and allowing faith to work in my life.  All encompass an outward sign of my inward heart condition.  Works of faith demonstrate that Christ’s grace is operating in my life to bring me in accord with the righteous principles of His law.  Obedience is a sign of my love for God and my willingness to render Him true worship.

I describe faith, through all that I have learned over the past months, as a trust relationship.  The Book of Mormon heroes had faith in God because they trusted Him.  They knew Him.  They counted on him to keep His word, to be honest, good, caring and omnipotent on their behalf, especially as they were obedient to His teachings and directives.  It is no different for me.  

The past months have been difficult for me, for my family.  At first I was careful to take one day at a time because that is all that I could do.  As I began to pray and study the scriptures, the day went into two days and I looked forward to learning and doing more in my class work and with my fellow students.  It has been hard to finish course work amongst employment and caring my husband, family and home.  But I have done it.  Not as good in some areas as I would have hoped but I have completed it.  This is faith; pure and simple!  The knowledge that my works, my passion, my obedience assists faith in carrying me through all that need to accomplish.  I still have room for improvement and I still get frustrated and angry but less and less.  I understand that our Savior makes Himself available to listen and assist.  And I have faith that all will be well … 

Because, I ride the Dark Horse !! 

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