The fourth Article of Faith states that faith in Jesus Christ is the first principle of the Gospel. Faith is so important that even the title of the thirteen articles is called “The Articles of Faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.” The importance of faith is even shown during the Last Supper when Jesus spoke to Simon Peter, “Behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren” (Luke 22: 31-32). From previous experiences Jesus had with His disciples He understood how easily it was for them to have their faith fail. During one of the times they were crossing a lake, Jesus fell asleep, and a great storm arose. The disciples were afraid they would be killed and awoke Jesus. Jesus calmed the storm and asked his disciples, “Where is your faith?” (Luke 8:22-25). The disciples had seen many miracles and yet their faith failed even in close proximity to Jesus when they feared they would die. How could this be possible with everything they had seen and experienced?
The greatest example faith failing, that I believe, is the Israelites camping at Mount Sinai during their exodus from Egypt. (I am not going to go into great detail about everything that happens, if you want to know more read Exodus 19-24 & 32.) The biggest mistake many make, and including myself, is that people think that Moses just went up Mount Sinai to commune with the Lord one time, where he stayed for forty days and received the tablets of the commandments. What precedes his extended stay up Mount Sinai is that he is called up with Aaron and other Elders. The Lord orally gives the commandments, they are those who witness this and are in proximity of this happening. Moses comes back down writes the words of the Lord and has the Israelites covenant that they will follow the commandments—the first of which is having no other gods before them, no idols, and especially bowing down and worshipping them. The people exclaim they would keep all of the Lord’s commandments. After the covenant, Aaron with other elders see the “God of Israel” (Exodus 24:9-10). Then Moses is called back up Mount Sinai where he obtains the tablets and is absent from the people for the forty days. He leaves Aaron in charge if the people need anything. Once the Israelites realize that Moses is not coming down anytime soon, they ask Aaron, “Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him” (Exodus 32:1). Surprisingly, Aaron makes a golden calf for them to worship, even though he has witnessed and experienced more than most.
The Psalmist describes how the Israelites were during their forty years in the desert, “They believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation,” (Psalms 78:22). The Israelites showed that their belief in God was based solely upon Moses being present and when they were not worrying about their needs and comfort. Jesus’ disciples believed in Him, but they had limited trust in His salvation while Jesus was alive. From the Book of Mormon, Laman and Lemuel believed in God but did not trust in His salvation. Laman and his brothers are sent back to Jerusalem to obtain the Brass Plates, Nephi uses all of their family’s wealth to buy the plates, this plan failed and Laban tries to kill them. Laman and Lemuel are mad at Nephi and begin to beat him, and an Angel appears before them and tells them that the Lord will deliver Laban into their hands. Laman and Lemuel state, “How is it possible that the Lord will deliver Laban into our Hands? Behold, he is a mighty man, and he can command fifty, yea, even he can slay fifty; then why not us?” (1 Nephi 3:31). Regardless of an angel visiting, Laban and Lemuel cannot believe God is more powerful than Laban. As we can see from these examples, trust is an important aspect of faith.
The question you have to ask yourself is, “do I trust God?” That is a tougher question than, “do I believe there is a God?” In every example, they each believed there is a God. The Israelites quickly turned to idols. They still had a belief, but they could not distinguish the God of Israel from Moses, or maybe they did not know how to communicate with God when Moses was absent; either way, they did not trust God. There are times in our lives when we have the same outlook as the Israelites, Laman and Lemuel, or the early days of Jesus’ disciples, especially when times become rocky and there is no light to see by. Our faith begins to fail.
Over the next couple of weeks, think about where your faith is. There are many whose faith fail when a loved one passes, when a person we hold in great esteem falls away or does us wrong, when there is a catastrophic event, when ideologies conflict, and even our inactivity, lack of resources, discomfort, or anything you can think of. For me, it is when I think I know more than God, my pride takes over and my faith begins to fail. In other words, “why am I not getting my way all of the time? I am a better person than they, I deserve more.” It is really easy to quantify faith by how our life is going. I have the most faith when I am winning, but my faith begins to fail when I lose. So how do we improve our faith where we can begin to believe and trust in God? This is something that I will discuss in my next post.
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