Alma 25-26

(April 6, 2015)

                There is a great deal of power that comes from reaching the point where we recognize that the word of the Lord is fulfilled in every particular.  This, ultimately, is what faith is all about.  We sometimes view faith as though it was this amorphous thing whereby we think that God lives and thus we are given power.  But in reality, faith is something far more difficult and far greater in consequence.

                As I learned a while ago, if faith has moral consequence faith must be an exercise in moral agency.  This faith amounts to a decision to believe.  In most cases, this is presented as a choice to believe God when He tells us something – believe that He will fulfill His word.  It isn’t enough to believe that the Lord told us to love one another – we must also have sufficient faith to trust that if we love one another (even those who hatefully use us and persecute us), that the Lord will make up the difference and protect us and lift us up.

                This is the faith that comes from knowing that the word of the Lord will be fulfilled in every particular, and this is the faith that comes only (at least in my experience) through painful lessons and the choice in difficult situations to trust the Lord and to see thereafter His promises fulfilled.