Increasing My Faith

This week I have been studying in the last chapters of Alma. Through these chapters I have seen many definitions of what faith is. I have chosen to study Faith over the last few weeks and see how faith can make a difference in my life. As I have read these chapters these are the things that I have come to understand faith to be:

Faith is Obedience (Alma 57:19-21)
Faith brings Protection (Alma 57:25)
Faith is the Power of God (Alma 57:26)
Faith is Trust in the Father (Alma 57:27)
Faith is Peace and Hope (Alma 58:11)

Faith is Patience (Alma 60:26)

As I have thought about these things and what a difference they could make in my life I was moved by all that the Lord has promised us in return for our faith in Him.  The examples of the young men that served to fight for their liberty and freedom alongside Captain Moroni are ones that I am very aware of and want to grow those attributes in my life. 

In Alma 56:46-48 we read, 

“For as I had ever called them my sons (for they were all of them very young) even so they said unto me: Father, behold our God is with us, and he will not suffer that we should fall; then let us go forth; we would not slay our brethren if they would let us alone; therefore let us go, lest they should overpower the army of Antipus.Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it.” 

In these verses we read of the great faith that these young men had and that they were without doubt.  This reminded me of the talk given by President Uchtdorf:

“My dear friends—please, first doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. We must never allow doubt to hold us prisoner and keep us from the divine love, peace, and gifts that come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.” 

Faith and doubt cannot exist together.  I am learning every day in my life.  If I want to become closer to Christ, I need to turn away from my doubts and look with faith unto Him. I hope that as I continue on my journey to discipleship that I will find the blessings of faith and that I will let go of those things that I doubt in my life and in my relationship with my Father and his son Jesus Christ. 

Repentance and Charity

In Alma 34:31-36 Amulek teaches us what we should be concerned about in this life.  He teaches us that this life is a time for us to perform our labors.  What does he mean by our labors?  I believe that this means the good works that we do in the name of Christ.  He also tells us in verse 32 that it is a time for us to prepare to meet God.  For us to prepare to meet God we must be humble and repent.  In verse 33 Amulek pleads with us saying, “…I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end.”  As we work in our lives to come to know the Father and the Son we must repent. If we are repenting of our sin and working to become more obedient the Lord will be able to send blessings to our lives. 

Amulek also challenges us to be charitable and to harden not our hearts.  There are so many voices in the world that would have us believe that we need to do for ourselves and that we need not worry about others but the example of Alma and Amulek teaches us differently.  We must come to love the Lord and desire to serve him and his children. This is where we will find happiness.  There have been many times in my life that I have found peace in the charitable service of others.  When I am having problems, either physical, temporal or spiritual I have found that when I turn to serving others I can find peace and resolution to my problems.  One of the ways that I have found peace in service is in doing family history. 

There was a time when my son was a teenager that we were experiencing a lot of tension in our family and in our relationship with him.  I was eager to find some way for us to bond and grow closer.  After much prayer and study, I was inspired to ask my son to join me in doing family history work.  He was very hesitant at first and I had to do lots of arm twisting.  Once we got started I found that we were spending time together working to find names on our family line that needed their temple work done.  The more time we spent in this charitable work the closer we became and the tension in our home became less and less.  It was wonderful when after receiving his endowment we were able to return many times and do the temple work for those names that we had worked to find together.  Now as my son is gone serving a full time mission I am able to continue to attend the temple and often as I look at the name that I am doing proxy work for it is one of those names that we found together.   

I am thankful for the lessons that we learn in the scriptures, and the teaching of those ancient prophets.  As we are striving to become more like Christ and to learn how we can return to him I am grateful for the words of Amulek.