Welcome to Gaia! ::

Welcome everybody to the meeting.

tonight we shall be speaking about faith.

now what is faith?

good. here is what it says on LDS.org about faith; Faith is a principle of action and power. Whenever we work toward a worthy goal, we exercise faith. We show our hope for something that we cannot yet see.

Well, it sort of means to me what it comes across as. It's believing in things which aren't seen. I guess I see faith as a test to us. Sure, we'll believe when we see something is true, when we can see proof of its existence, but faith is the real thing because we have to act without for sure knowing. We have to trust in what be believe. Gee, it's not that easy to explain, is it?

Those are really cool verses. I remember awhile back I came across Alma 32:27 which says...

27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.

I really liked this scripture because it says that even if you don't have faith, but really want to believe, just experiment and try doing the things that would require faith. And as you act and try things out, you will come to have faith.

I for sure know that this is true. In times in the past, there have been times where I didn't have faith about something. It was really hard for me to believe in what I was struggling with, but I thought it out in my head and worked at it, and came to have faith.

Faith without works is dead, isn't it? I remember a year ago Snaksie came out and told us that we CAN NOT work our way to Heaven. I think of all the lessons, that one I will not forget.

We need to have faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in His Atonement, and what it means to us. If we don't have faith that we can repent and be made clean from our sins, I guess it just wouldn't work that well for us.

For certain and the most important to me, you have to have faith in your loving Heavenly Father. From the very beginning, He was there for us, and He always will be there because He loves us. We are His children and we are so blessed to have such an awesome person as our Father. You know, for all the blessings He has given to us, we'll never be able to pay Him back for all of the goodness and mercy He's shown for us. Just thinking about it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. biggrin If there's anything at all that I can testify of and go on and on about to anyone and everyone, it's of the love our Heavenly Father has for each and every single one of us. What makes me sad is when people come out and say, "Oh, no, He doesn't love me or care for me. He doesn't care what I'm going through, or the trials that I have."

Let me tell you right now that He does love you and He does care and will forever care. Think of all the blessings we have. In our trials if we look hard enough we find blessings. They help us to grow and mature, and to develop into the person we are going to be for the rest of our lives, and beyond that. He doesn't like to see us suffer, I'm certain, but it only strengthens us in the long run. We just need to focus on the good things in life, and look for His hand in all things. Trust me when I say that if you really look, you'll find His hand everywhere. Sometimes it's funny how often I notice things that I know He's done to help things along.

Those words... "Doubt not, fear not" ... there's comfort in that. It's almost like He's speaking to us, saying, "Don't be afraid. Trust in me, because I care and will always be here for you." Snap, I started the waterworks again.

Yeah, it is wonderful to know that He will always be around. When we fall and scrape ourselves up, He'll always be there to pick us back up, heal our wounds, and get us moving again. It's so wonderful.

Well, I guess reading our scriptures and saying our prayers every day would be a good way to strengthen our faith.