What is FAITH?……and WHAT or WHO is it important to have faith in? There are many thing we could list…like looking for job. (you’ve got to be optimistic and have faith that you’ll get it) ..sure that’s important. You have to have faith that you’re following the proper parenting skills to raise your kids to be upstanding citizens in the community and be able to sustain themselves when they are old enough to leave home. For everything we do we have to have a certain amount of faith, but will it get us to where we want to go after we leave this stage of existence and move on into the after life?

How many people seriously think about this and read the scriptures….especially our young people, in this day and age where there are soooo many distractions. Technology has far outgrown spirituality. Getting yourself to a safe, happy place after death should be the top priority for all of us. This may be the very last chance to make a stab at it. The only way this can be accomplished is to WANT to. If you have the desire, you can achieve anything you want if you’re willing to pay the price. We are on the threshold of a brighter day……the Millennium. It’s just around the corner and time is of the essence. Without faith, you can never achieve this goal. So what is the most important thing we can have FAITH in? The answer of course is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He came to show us the way back to our heavenly home. All his teachings are meant to prepare us for a higher state of things. This place we’re in now is literally hell, but then there’s a saying that goes, “You have to go through hell to get to heaven.” Following Him is how we are saved. We can’t just say because we accept Jesus, we are saved, we must obey His teachings also. “There is a law, irrevocably decreed in the heaven before the foundation of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated…..And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.” D&C 130: 20,21. Obedience to God’s word is absolutely necessary. These blessings are open to everyone that desires them, and is willing to obey. In a document entitled Lectures on Faith, there is a paragraph that pretty well gives us an idea of how this works.

“It is necessary that men should have an idea that He (God) is no respecter of persons, for with the idea of all the other excellencies of his character, and this one wanting, men could not exercise faith in Him; because if He were a respecter of persons, they could not tell what their privileges were, nor how far they were authorized to exercise faith in Him, or whether they were authorized to do it at  all, but all must be confusion; but no sooner are the minds of men made acquainted with the truth on this point, that He is no respecter of persons, then they see that they have authority by faith to lay hold on eternal life, the richest boon of heaven,  because God is no respecter of persons, and that every man in every nation has an equal privilege.” (Lectures, Third lecture, para. 23, p 36.)

In Heb.1”11 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” We can’t see Jesus, we can’t see heaven, but we know they’re there. At first we HOPE that what we’ve been taught about Jesus and his mission is true…..then belief leads to FAITH that they are true…..then as you study and pray you are able to gain a KNOWLEDGE that God hears and answers prayers and you KNOW they are true. Faith will lead you to where you want to go, but not without you putting forth the effort to accomplish it. It’s my fear that there are way too few people in this world today who even care.

When Mary Magdalene came into the room where Jesus was and anointed his feet with a very expensive ointment from an alabaster jar, he was criticized by one of his disciples. Didn’t Jesus realize that she was a sinner? And how much better it would have been if he had used the money spent on that ointment to help the poor. Jesus then told him that he didn’t even offer to wash his feet with water, but she had washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair, and had kissed them continually. He then told her that her sins were forgiven and that by FAITH she was saved. He then explained to those present that whose sins are little, there is little to forgive, but if their sins are great and many, forgiveness brings forth great love and gratefulness….and devotion. This should give us a great deal of hope. We can repent and we can be forgiven and find joy and peace.

In the sixth Lecture on Faith, it states: An actual knowledge to any person, that the course of life which he is pursuing is according to the will of God, and is necessary to enable him to have confidence in God….without which NO man can attain eternal life….unless they have an actual knowledge that that the course they are perusing is according to the will of God, they will grow weary in their minds and faint. The only way is to know your life is in harmony with God’s will is that you are willing to obey His Commandments. There is no room for disobedience or rebellion, only humility and gratitude.