A Little Faith Goes a Long Way

I've been thinking a lot about faith lately. In the scriptures, we find a lot of different descriptions of what faith is. One of my favorite scriptures on faith is found in Proverbs. It reads, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths" (Proverbs 3:5-6). When I think of faith, I think of trusting in the Lord. We can't see Him, but we have faith that He is there and that He loves us. We don't have proof that the good things that come to us in this life come directly from Him, but we believe and have faith that they are, indeed, blessings from above.

So when I think of faith, I also think a lot about the promises that God makes to us. Throughout scripture, God gives us commandments. He does so because He loves us and wants us to be happy, protected and blessed. When He does give commandments, He many times promises us blessings for obedience to those commandments. For example, in the 10 Commandments, we are instructed: "Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee" (Exodus 20:12). If we have faith in God, we have faith that He not only gives commandments for our benefit, but also will always fulfill the promises He makes, and that those promised blessings far outweigh the allure of the temptations of the world.

In other words, when I think of faith, I think, "do we trust God enough to obey His commandments?" Temptations are appealing, and that is why it takes trust to do what God wants us to do instead of what we would prefer to do ourselves. When we turn our will over to the Father's we are blessed, and we can enjoy peace of conscious, and just plain happiness. I know that obedience takes faith, but that it brings great blessings. It can be hard at first, but God will always consecrate our efforts to live in harmony with the teachings of His Son.