Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Faith: Principle of Power

Reading:   Lectures on Faith: Lecture First

The lectures on Faith were classes of instruction given "... On the Doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, originally delivered before a Class of the Elders, in Kirtland, Ohio."

I will place that little intro at the beginning of each of the next seven blogs pertaining to the seven lectures on faith.  In the first of these lectures, the brethren pound in the fact that nothing can progress without faith; every action is a work in faith.  Basically, from the simplest task, waking up in the morning and walking to the bathroom, to the grandest of actions, moving a mountain, faith is the power that makes things happen.

Yes, waking up and walking to the bathroom is an automatic action that takes little thought but it takes little thought because we do it all the time - we inherently have faith that our legs will work and our mind will guide us accordingly.  Break down your day, your normal practices, and try to isolate an action that does not take habitual faith to achieve. We do something ten times, a hundred times, thousands of times and yet each action started somewhere with an act of faith, muscle memory forms and the once impossible task is done habitually, easily, without any reflection on faith.  Moving mountains can be as easy if we, like the brother of Jared, practice our faith and doubt not the power of God.

LECTURE FIRST (Paragraph 24)

24. Faith, then, is the first great governing principle which has power, dominion, and authority over all things; by it they exist, by it they are upheld, by it they are changed, or by it they remain, agreeable to the will of God. Without it there is no power, and without power there could be no creation nor existence! 

Practicing faith isn't easy, I mean I don't believe I can jump right into moving a mountain (see...already I'm showing a lack of faith?  If I believe in God, why could I not move a mountain right now, hmmmm), anyway I need to start being more aware of all the aspects of faith at work in my life and then build from there.  I do have faith but tend to stretch my own abilities, abilities I now understand to have earned through faith, before asking humbly for help.

Acknowledging all actions as acts of faith, as power gained through faithful exertion and practice, I do believe I will gain a stronger testimony of our Savior and gain a personal witness of my potential as a celestial being.

~Kipling


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