Absolute Faith

Day seventy-six

The piles keep getting bigger, so I keep praying to the Lord asking Him to bear a little of the load.  I know that He is listening because He is putting things in my life to help balance the load. For every difficult thing I have to deal with there are at least two good things I recognize as blessings. The numbers show that He is still there.

Genesis 22

What would you say if you were offered a proven method to achieve absolute faith in God?  There are even testimonials from reliable sources to prove the effectiveness of this method.   Would you jump at the chance?

Before you make your decision let me explain the details of this method because it is important that you make this decision of your own free will, and to do that, you will need to weigh the benefits against the costs.

My above thoughts were inspired by Genesis 22:1-2:

“And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.  And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”

The word ‘tempt’ in this verse means to test, try, or prove.   In this case, it is Abraham who is being tested, but in reality this could be any one of us.  I know that I learn best by doing; maybe you share that quality with me, it appears that Abraham was the same way.  The Lord, being the master teacher that He is, knows this about us and is happy to provide us with lots of opportunities to learn.  God was testing Abraham for a reason, just like He has his reasons for testing us.  So, why does God test us?

To prepare us to receive glory (D&C 136:31)

To sanctify us (D&C 104:4-5)

To test our commitment (D&C 98:12-15; 101:35-38)

To know where your trust lies (D&C 122:5-9)

To give us opportunities for our faith to grow (Ether 12:27)

To learn about ourselves (George Q. Cannon quote: “…the purpose was to impress upon Abraham a lesson and to enable him to attain unto knowledge that he could not obtain in any other way…He tries us for our own good that we may know ourselves.)

There are two main parts to being tested:

Sacrifice (Being willing to give up something precious to you) and Trust (Believing in the integrity of God).

What is God asking us to sacrifice and trust Him with? 

Abraham’s test in this instance is the willingness to sacrifice his son and he doesn’t hesitate.  In the Doctrine and Covenants verses the Lord lets us know that we should be willing to sacrifice our own lives.  This is not just a reference to dying, but inferring that we need to be willing to give up the life we want for ourselves, to live the life that God wants for us.   Why not ask Abraham to sacrifice his life instead of Isaac’s?  The Lord knew Abraham so well that He knew that Abraham would have given himself up for sacrifice in a heartbeat if the Lord had asked, but with Isaac there was an opportunity for intense pressure on Abraham. Would he be willing to sacrifice that which was precious to him?  Under such pressure would we deny God, or would we put our trust in Him that whatever He asks is for our benefit?  

Why do we need to be able to deal with intense pressure?  To answer this we have to look at things from an eternal perspective, we are to become like God.  What kind of God would we be if we cannot deal with intense pressure?  

At the beginning of my blog I offered you a proven method to absolute faith in God.  Absolute faith, that is the benefit or blessing we receive from being tested, under intense pressure, and trusting in the Lord.  The success rate for God’s method depends on each person’s willingness to be part of this testing.  We are fortunate to have the scriptures which give examples of people who accepted the offer with all their heart versus those that weren't even willing to try. Now that you know what is required, ask yourself this question: Are you willing to pay the costs to receive the benefit?