It is already June this week! Where does the time go?? Happy summer!
I have been studying a lot on faith lately and I have come to know even more that I can't go very far without it! I was seeking answers earlier this week and I would just like to share what I found! I wasn't quite sure where to start so I just opened to Ether 12 knowing that that chapter talks about what I was looking for. After reading verse 6 I pondered for a bit. I have drawn on that verse a lot for strength but never really went deeper. I looked in the footnotes to Hebrews 11:1 and found some enlightening in verse 3, "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." I then realized that truly everything around us is not made by things which do appear. Why? Because Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want us to have faith. It is by faith that we learn to trust in them and that we begin to learn more of their character. It took me a couple times of reading this verse to really grasp what it was saying, but it rang so true to me. Then in verse 13 which speaks of Abel, Enoch, Noah and Abraham. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." These men had the faith through knowing that promises existed and that they would be fulfilled even though they did not have them yet. That knowledge is what kept them walking by faith. And as doing so, they confessed they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. I love that, because truly all of us are. None of us know exactly how to balance the earthly and temporal world we live in. But we try and we will succeed as we turn to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are strangers and pilgrims that left our heavenly home and are here now struggling and yearning to get back home. The only way to do that is by faith. Verses 14-16, "For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city." If we just remember or if we are simply mindful of that country or heavenly home that we came out of, we can return! This is why faith is necessary. This is why often times Heavenly Father lets us struggle before he steps in and before we feel of that enabling power which comes through the Atonement of His Son.
I am indeed a pilgrim, and especially a stranger in Malaysia. But I have faith that I will receive His help because He has and because I know that He wants me and His children here to return home to Him. Romans 8:24, "For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?" I have faith and hope because I know that the Savior has already walked this path before. His footsteps are there for us to follow and I know we cannot get lost if we do so. Teaching people here of that truth is one experience I am extremely thankful for. These people are just trying to get home and they seek the true comfort and peace from whence we all came.