But God put a burr under my saddle recently when I received a challenge from a friend of mine to write this article by Sunday night. So here I am.
A few weeks ago I was preparing a talk on Elder Neil L. Andersen's talk Faith Is Not by Chance, but by Choice. It made me start to wonder. If faith is a choice then how do we chose it?
Choice
Let's say you're on some sort of show like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and the question is this:
"If you're going through a rough time in your life what is the correct course of action?"A) Wallow In Self-Pity
B) Blame Others
C) Have Faith
D) Eat Your Sorrows Away
E) A, B & D
What in the world could the correct answer be?? (I'll give you a hint, it's faith. It's always faith.)(We end up picking E though a lot don't we?)
It's never that simple though is it? If life were a series of game-show choices one of them would always come out the clear winner.
"You're about to go to bed and haven't read your scriptures. What do you do?"
A) Go to bed, duh. You read your scriptures yesterday!
B) Get up and eat ice cream. Can't go wrong with ice cream!
C) Read your scriptures.
D) Pull out your phone intending to read scriptures and check facebook on your phone real quick. Suddenly it's an hour later and you're finally going to bed, still without reading your scriptures.
Overly simplified examples? Maybe. But the point here is that "faith" in and of itself is not an option for choosing.
Options
We really only have three categories of choice in our life and they're beautifully stated in Mosiah 4:30
But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not.
It's so clear here that we really only have power over three things in life. That's it!
We choose our thoughts.
We choose our words.
We choose our actions.
Actions
I'll start with actions because that's probably the most visible choice towards faith that we can make. James 2:17 "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone."
Faith without works is dead.
But let's be careful here. I've heard plenty of experiences of people outwardly living the gospel, going to church, fulfilling callings, etc. and then suddenly falling off the bandwagon because, although they were going through the motions, their actions were empty. Void of true intent. Void of faith.
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| It works are the ores then faith is the boat. You're not getting anywhere without both. |
Work without faith is dead.
Read that a few more times. I'm serious. This is something that we may not realize as a church.
You can go to church all you want but unless you're doing it in faith, even a modicum of faith, then it won't benefit you. This is why cynics and sceptics of the Book of Mormon can read it cover to cover and not benefit from it at all! They're not reading it with any amount of faith. Work without faith is dead.
I'll admit that occasionally I'll go to the temple and not get much out of it. Is that because the Spirit wasn't there? It is because there wasn't anything for me to learn? Certainly not! The Spirit is always there and there's so much I have yet to learn it's embarrassing. It's because I didn't go with faith as my motive.
I realize that approaching faith as a motive might seem a little abstract to some. But in my mind it fits rather naturally. Think about it and see if faith in Christ and His promises isn't the ultimate foundation for your obedience to His commandments.
We must choose faith with our actions as well as choose faith in our actions.
Words
How do we choose faith with our words?
I'll give you a hint. It's not to walk around muttering "faith, faith, faith, faith..." under our breath. That wouldn't be very helpful and we would probably get people worrying about us.
It's simple and beautifully phrased in Ephesians 4:29 and For the Strength of Youth
"Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good."
If you would, follow the link and read the council on language in For the Strength of Youth. It's three very short paragraphs and I literally couldn't say it better myself.
All of that being said, I would submit that choosing faith in our communication and merely having uplifting conversation are different, though very similar.
Rather than delimiting exactly what I believe the differences are between the two I would invite you to ponder this yourself: What does it mean to me to choose faith in the words I say?
Thoughts
This is a favorite topic of mine. The mind is so powerful! I'm quite excited about a topic I'm thinking about writing on soon that deals a lot more with thoughts and the power of a single thought. But for now I'll confine myself to how we might choose faith in our thoughts.
Choosing faith in your thoughts is, I think, the best part of this topic of choice. Everything stems from our thoughts. If we can exercise self control in our thoughts, driving them toward God, then we will find the confidence spoken of in D&C 121:45 "Then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven."
Because our thoughts are so private then we tend to guard them less than we might guard our actions and our words. We trick ourselves into thinking we can let ourselves dwell on pessimistic or depressing thoughts without repercussion.
How do we choose faith in our thoughts? First we understand the relationship we have with our thoughts. Some people are inclined to think that we have little to no control over our thoughts. They just sort of happen and we are just along for the ride as passengers to our thoughts. I hope as you were reading that then you, like I did while writing it, thought "No, that's ridiculous. We choose what to think about."
Yes! Exactly! We choose what thoughts dominate our mind and what thoughts are pushed to the side. Now I understand that some times it's easier than others to control our thoughts than at other times. Someone who has recently experienced some great tragedy will not consciously be able to simply stop thinking about what happened. But in all circumstances the way our thoughts are "tinted" is what we control most of all. We can choose to view our thoughts through the lense of pessimism or the rose-colored glasses of optimism. Just so we can choose faith.
I don't mean to imply that choosing faith in our thoughts will always result in a happy-go-lucky attitude, or that a facade of all-is-well-in-Zion should be adopted. That would honestly be counterproductive in some circumstances. How would we possibly "mourn with those that mourn" if we see mourning as faithless? No, choosing faith in our thoughts means that although we may be sad, or hurt, or frustrated, or hopeless, that we consciously choose to trust God.
Personally I've had experiences lately to choose faith in my thoughts. Satan has tried so hard to get me to doubt myself. He knows that if he can win the war in my head then he wins the war in my life. There have been times, when I'm at the very end of my emotional rope, when I have reached a critical point in my mind and very literally prayed/spoken: "Lord, I choose faith. Please help me." When I make that conscious choice to have faith in God then He inevitably steps in and I can feel an almost immediate easing of whatever burden I am feeling weighted with.
Ergo
When you come upon a situation in which you have a choice to make I would invite you to choose faith. Your actions, your words, and your thoughts are the choices you have.
It's helped me immensely in my life at least. I believe it will help you too.
Keep Pushing On
Andrew
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| If faith isn't the seed then what is? What does that mean for us? |
PS: Faith is like a little seed... or is it?
I didn't have time to go into this point, but I still want to make mention of it. Faith, as described by Alma 32, is not like a seed. Read that chapter carefully and see what the "seed" we plant in our hearts really is. Then see what role faith plays in that process. Interesting isn't it?
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