Faith and Action

Day thirty-three

Today has the potential to be a great day!  Not because I get to do anything overly exciting, but because I have the opportunity to hone my domestic goddess skills (this sounds so much better than clean the house, laundry, etc,).  I get to set the pace as I put my house in order.  I get to focus on my family today and that makes me happy! 

So again my prayer is filled with gratitude for the chance to serve my family and a request to help me create not just a clean environment, but also a spirit-filled environment in my home.

Today I am focusing on Article of Faith 4. 

We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

As I was studying it became clear that there is just too much information to write in one post, so I decided to break it up.  Today I will focus on Faith.

What is faith?

I found lots of different answers, here are few of my favorites:
Faith:
-A confidence in truth or existence of something or someone not immediately susceptible to rigorous proofs
-A life-changing confidence that God does what He promises
-A hope for things which are not seen, but which are true (Heb. 11:1)
-A trusting relationship with God
-A principle of action and power
-Is based on correct knowledge
-Is a gift
-Is belief

Is there a difference between faith and belief?

Faith (BD:Bible Dictionary):  Faith is more than belief, since true faith always moves its possessor to some kind of physical and mental action.

I began to think about how my actions reflect my faith.  Can others see my faith through my actions? What physical and mental actions do I take because of my faith?  Prayer, scripture reading, censoring my thoughts and words, loving others, and the list goes on.  It is amazing to think about how much of your life is affected by your faith.  Unfortunately, I cannot say that I reflect my faith 100% of the time, I make mistakes.  Luckily, the Lord keeps giving me the opportunity to improve.

How important is faith?

With faith we can obtain a remission of sins and eventually eternal life, we can know that the way we are living our lives is acceptable to God, we can receive blessings like: individual and personal testimony, guidance, revelation, spiritual knowledge, we can have assurance of personal salvation in the life to come.

There is a reason faith is listed first in this Article of Faith, it is the foundation to our relationship with the Lord. We control how much faith we have, hence we control the type of relationship we have with the Lord.  It is up to us to make it important in our life.

How do I have faith?

This is the big question.  Faith does not come easy to everyone and even those that have faith can loose it. 
We know that faith must be centered on Jesus Christ for salvation (BD) and that it is kindled by hearing the testimony of those who have faith (Rom. 10:14-17) and by obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ (D&C 130:20-21).

Elder Bruce R. McConkie taught: “Faith is a gift of God bestowed as a reward for personal righteousness. It is always given when righteousness is present, and the greater the measure of obedience to God’s laws the greater will be the endowment of faith” (Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed. [1966], 264)

The real key to faith is, it is a gift, and it must be cultured and sought after.  Our willingness to have confidence, trust, and hope in the Lord, leads to a desire to more righteous actions, which in turn, leads to a growth in our faith.  It is a perfect plan for the imperfect people of the world.

My goal today is to make sure my actions reflect my faith in the Lord to all those around me!