Our Father in Heaven knew that in mortality we would face challenges, tribulation, and turmoil; He knew we would wrestle with questions, disappointments, temptations, and weaknesses. To give us mortal strength and divine guidance, He provided the Holy Spirit, another name for the Holy Ghost.
As I have been studying the Book of Mormon this year I have found myself pondering more deeply on the question of faith. Specifically, what do the scriptures teach us about faith and how can I have greater faith when I am faced with doubts.
The story of the Lehi and his family’s struggles in the wilderness teach us a lot about how we can have faith when we are faced with challenges and doubts. It also teaches us what can happen when we choose not to have faith.
So, how can we have faith when we have doubts? Where do doubts come from? Why does the Lord require us to have faith? What can we do to build stronger faith? Let’s explore some of these questions.
The Lord Asks Us To Do Big Things
Therefore ye must always pray unto the Father in my name; and whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you. Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed.
The Book of Mormon begins with the story of Lehi and his family. Lehi was a wealthy Israelite who lived near Jerusalem several hundred years before Christ. The scriptures tell us Lehi was a good man who sought to follow the teachings of the prophets.
When many of the prophets began to prophesy about the destruction of Jerusalem, Lehi showed his faith and prayed to know of the truth for himself. He saw visions and was called to be a prophet.
Because Lehi prophesied that Jerusalem would be destroyed, the people wanted to kill him. The Lord commanded Lehi to take his family and flee into the wilderness. The Lord had a plan for Lehi and his posterity. He had prepared a land of promise for them because Lehi had faith.
Lehi’s story teaches us a very important point about faith: faith is a choice. Whenever we receive guidance from the Lord, we have a choice. We can choose to question and doubt the guidance or we can choose to have faith.
Lehi chose to have faith. When he heard the prophecies about Jerusalem, he chose to believe and pray to the Lord for the people of Jerusalem. When Lehi was given the commandment to take his family and flee to the wilderness, he chose to have faith. He walked away from his life of wealth and comfort and followed the commandments of God.
The Lord has great blessings for us, but we must choose to accept them. The way we do this is by following His commandments with faith.
We Cannot Always See The Outcome, But We Can Trust That The Lord Can
Even with all of the mistakes, opposition, and learning that accompany our mortal experience, God never loses sight of our eternal potential, even when we do. We can trust Him “because God wants His children back.” And He has provided a way through the Atonement of His Son, Jesus Christ. The Atonement “is the core of the plan of salvation.”
When commanded, Lehi took his family and fled into the wilderness. At the time, he had four sons: Laman, Lemuel, Nephi and Sam. Imagining the scene as Lehi’s family packed their provisions and bid farewell to their home and possessions, it is easy to understand why some if not all of them may have had doubts in their hearts.
Whenever we begin to follow the path of faith we should expect that we will have questions. By definition, acting on faith is acting without a full knowledge of the outcome. Because we don’t know the outcome of our choices we must determine how we will respond to the questions we have.
We can all learn a valuable lesson from the different ways Laman and Lemuel and Nephi each approached their questions.
The Book of Mormon tells us Laman and Lemuel continually had questions about their father’s prophecies. They let these questions turn into doubts that them to complain and find fault with their father. Laman and Lemuel did not seek the help of the Spirit to understand Lehi’s prophecies. Instead, they used their lack of understanding as an excuse to not follow what they were taught.
Nephi also had questions about his father’s prophecies. Nephi however, turned to the Lord to find answers to his questions. Repeatedly, Nephi sought for further understanding when he had questions by reading the scriptures, pondering on truth, and praying for more understanding.
Satan will always tempt us to use our questions as excuses for not following the commandments of God, just as Laman and Lemuel did. He will tell us that the gospel must not be true because if it where we wouldn’t have the questions we do. The devil will try to make us believe that because we don’t understand one aspect of the gospel that the rest of it isn’t true either. He will try to make you believe that because you don’t understand something now, you will never understand it. All of these thoughts from the adversary are lies he uses to rob us of joy and happiness.
The Lord is always there to help us when we have faith in Him. As we see in Nephi’s example, when we come to the Lord with our questions, He can teach us and lead us to understanding. At times we may need to seek answers for a long time, but we can always trust that the answers will come. The Lord loves each and every one of us. We can trust that He knows the what is best for us. He has given us the commandments to help us find true joy. Like a loving parent, He is working to guide us home.
Doubting Our Doubts Instead Of Doubting Our Faith
Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. We must never allow doubt to hold us prisoner and keep us from the divine love, peace, and gifts that come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I love these words from President Uchtdorf. How many times have you let your doubts rob you of happiness. How many times have you let them become an obstacle that kept you from the love of the Lord and the companionship of the Holy Spirit? I know I have fallen into that trap before.
We are all human. We should expect that we will have questions about the gospel. As we learn and grow in the gospel, we will undoubtedly encounter things that require us to show faith. This is how the Lord intended it to be because it is by faith that we draw closer to our Savior.
Whenever we have questions, we have a choice of how we will handle them. We can choose to approach our questions with faith that the Lord will eventually give us more understanding. Alternately, we can choose to approach our questions with doubt that can eventually undermine the foundation of our testimonies. The choice is ours.
We must remember where doubts come from. They are a weapon that the devil ruthlessly wields in his attacks on our faith and testimony in the Savior. Because of this, we should not feel guilty when we feel doubts enter our mind. Instead we should recognize the doubt for what it is and do our best to trust in our testimony and show faith in the Lord by doing our best to follow Him.
Mustard Seeds And A Pile Of Rocks
Nephi, the brother of Jared, and even Moses all had a large body of water to cross—and each did it differently. Nephi worked “timbers of curious workmanship.” The brother of Jared built barges that were “tight like unto a dish.” And Moses “walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea.”
They each received personalized direction, tailored to them, and each trusted and acted. The Lord is mindful of those who obey and, in the words of Nephi, will “prepare a way for [us to] accomplish the thing which he commandeth.” Note that Nephi says, “a way”—not “the way.”
Do we miss or dismiss personal errands from the Lord because He has prepared “a way” different from the one we expect?
In the scriptures, the Savior repeated taught that even if we only have faith like a mustard seed, we can perform miracles. You may have seen a mustard seed, it is very small. At times we may feel that our faith is also very small, but that is ok.
As we work to exercise our faith it will grow and we will see mighty miracles in our own lives. Jesus taught that even though a mustard seed is small, it grows into a mighty tree. Our faith has this level of potential, but we must plant that seed in our hearts and help it to grow.
Another story we often hear when we learn about faith is the story of the Brother of Jared. I recently heard this story told in a way that brought it to life for me in some new and interesting ways.
Like Nephi, the Lord commanded the Brother of Jared to build barges to transport his people across the ocean. The barges he built were to be “tight, like unto a dish” (Ether 2:17) He was also told that at times they would be “be as a whale in the midst of the sea;” (Ether 2:24). While we don’t know exactly what these barges looked like, I imagine they might have looked like submarines.
The Brother of Jared had faith in the commandments of the Lord and built the barges as he was instructed. There were a couple of problems with the barges, however. Because they were air tight, the passengers would run out of air. Additionally, the barges had no windows and were therefore dark inside.
Despite knowing of these limitations, the Brother of Jared showed his faith by building the barges as commanded. He surely had questions about how these limitations could be overcome as he worked. He chose to move ahead with faith.
Faith Always Precedes The Miracle
And it came to pass that the brother of Jared cried unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, I have performed the work which thou hast commanded me, and I have made the barges according as thou hast directed me.
And behold, O Lord, in them there is no light; whither shall we steer? And also we shall perish, for in them we cannot breathe, save it is the air which is in them; therefore we shall perish.
After the Brother of Jared finished building the barges, he went to the Lord to ask for guidance on how to solve the problems he saw with their design. The Lord then gave him guidance on how to solve the problem of there not being enough air in the barges. But the Lord left it up to the Brother of Jared to find a solution for how to light the barges.
The Brother of Jared came up with a simple solution. He “did molten out of a rock sixteen small stones” (Ether 3:1). Think about this for a moment. The Lord had taught the Brother of Jared how to build barges, which much have been a technological miracle to those who built them. And then, the solution the Brother of Jared came up with was a meager offering of a pile of rocks.
We know from the story that the Brother of Jared did not only present the Lord with rocks, but he also presented an offering of extreme faith. This was a faith the Brother of Jared gained as he followed the commandments despite the questions he had. This faith enabled the Lord turn these humble offering of rocks into a profound miracle.
Conclusion
I do not know why we have the many trials that we have, but it is my personal feeling that the reward is so great, so eternal and everlasting, so joyful and beyond our understanding that in that day of reward, we may feel to say to our merciful, loving Father, “Was that all that was required?” I believe that if we could daily remember and recognize the depth of that love our Heavenly Father and our Savior have for us, we would be willing to do anything to be back in Their presence again, surrounded by Their love eternally. What will it matter what we suffered here if, in the end, those trials are the very things which qualify us for eternal life and exaltation in the kingdom of God with our Father and Savior?
The Lord has not commanded us to build ships like Nephi and the Brother of Jared. He has however commanded us to follow Him, to love and serve one another, and to share the gospel with all the earth. We can see great miracles when we follow the Savior in faith. Our efforts to serve others and keep the commandments may often feel like nothing more than a plain old pile of rocks. But as we bring the Lord our humble offering of rocks in faith, He can turn them into great miracles.
May we have the courage and humility to doubt our doubts and have faith and trust in the Lord. When we do, we can all see great miracles in our lives.
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