A little faith goes a long way!

In supplement to yesterday's post, which by the way thank you for viewing and if you haven't done so I invite you to do so now, I wanted to talk a little more about faith and works. Now, remember this is my opinion and no I am not going to try to convert you in any way nor will I be disrespectful to other religions and cultures. And I mean that. Now, Back to Faith and Works, there is a very fine line between what we do and what we think. Sometimes we reference both of these things by words like actions or thoughts or ideas. So with faith comes a hope or even a thought that something unreachable can be reachable or making the impossible possible. A scripture from the Bible speaks more about the power of Faith: Matthew 17: 20 "And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." 

       Wow! So this scripture clearly says that if you have faith the amount of a mustard seed you can move mountains or in context to be able to do things that are seemingly impossible! That is amazing! Now what is impossible? Well, not really anything if you have the help of the Lord. He is all powerful and can help us in our darkest hours. So where do Works fit in to the equation? Well, from what I have learned Grace is given to us by Jesus Christ, through His Atonement. I believe that God gave us the Atonement that we might repent of our sins and find peace of mind as we are forgiven of our sins. So how do we repent? Well, I personally think that that is where the works come in. As a Mormon I believe that there are five key principles that we should follow to truly be eligible for Heaven. 

1. Faith in Jesus Christ

2. Repentance

3. Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins

4. Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands  

5. Enduring to the end or repeating 1, 2 4 and 5

Now I feel that Elder Haggard can better explain this concept through a post he put on his blog recently.

2 Nephi 25: 23 also explains the power of work: “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”

So what does "after all we can do" mean? Well that is what I consider the work part of the Equation and the best way to describe faith and works is with a metaphor:

       There once was a man that applied for a job at a local grocery store. He met with the manager and got the Job. The next day the man came to the store and asked that the manager give him a large sum of money. Knowing that the man had not yet worked in the store the manager said "How can I trust that you will work for this money and not run off with it?" the Man answered "I need the money and I will pay you back when I have enough." The manager again explained that He couldn't trust him and that he was a new employee and had little trust in him and would not give him the money. Thus the man was not given the Money.

Was this fair? 

Was it the right thing to do?

What if you were in the manager's shoes what would you say?

       So in this example the manager was Christ and we were the employee asking for money (repentance). Now Christ gave us the Job (Atonement) but we need to show that we truly can repent by forsaking those sins and by promising or covenanting with the Lord that we won't do those things again. If we never work for our salvation, we never will show our gratitude for the Savior and His amazing Atonement. 
       Wouldn’t you feel bad if you were placed in front of Christ and He asked "what good did you do?", "What did you do to lift another?" And you didn't have anything to show for it? I personally would feel horrible, and I don't want anyone to feel like that. Because Christ loves us all and will always love us no matter what. But we need to show our love for him so that He knows that we truly are grateful for His Atonement and for what He has done for us. John 13: 34- "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another."

       Continue forward in faith and show God that you truly are grateful for His son Jesus Christ and I promise that you will feel of His love for you and will find peace in your life and joy in your hearts, I know it!

-Elder Sheets