The Law of Faith

One insight I had yesterday is that God's powers are extremely limited, at least in my case, perhaps because of a theoretical, theological law that I call The Law of Faith. Some time ago, I blogged about this Law of Faith in response to President Nelson's recent talk about faith, In that talk, he said, among other things, that our faith unlocks the power of God in our lives (implying that the power of God would be locked without our faith) and that our unbelief could keep God from blessing us with miracles. He reminded us of something Moroni said, that God " worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men." Perhaps that's not a coincidence, but a prerequisite. Perhaps God can only act in our lives insofar as we have faith that He can and will.

Some may say that it's heretical to believe that there's some grand, cosmic law that supposedly limits the power of God, but we already know of one such law: the Law of Justice. I believe it was Alma who taught us that [even God's] mercy cannot rob justice, or God would cease to be God. Perhaps, just as God cannot rob justice, perhaps He can hardly do anything for or through us unless we have faith.

Perhaps that's why I've struggled so much these last few months. I have heard that God is omnipotent, that He could, theoretically, show me a sign convincing enough to persuade me to have faith in Him. I have heard that He can work miracles, even the miracle of helping me overcome my personal challenges. I had grown tired of trying to take the first step of exercising faith, and I wanted Him to take the first step this time and bless me, despite my lack of faith. I thought that He, being omnipotent, could do that, but perhaps He, being bound by this theoretical Law of Faith, couldn't.

Our unbelief keeps God from blessing us. My unbelief kept God from blessing me. I've prayed for miracles to help me increase my faith in God, but now I think that God can only bless us with miracles if we already have faith.