How we live our lives increases or diminishes our faith. Prayer, obedience, honesty, purity of thought and deed, and unselfishness increase faith. Without these, faith diminishes.Sunday School answers, mostly. Later, he adds that studying the scriptures increases our faith also, which is nothing new to any of us. What's interesting is that he includes honesty, purity, and unselfishness in this list. I wonder how they increase a person's faith.
With the other things, it's easy to see how they increase our faith. The more we pray to our Heavenly Father, the more likely we are to hear His replies and believe in His existence. As we read the scriptures, the Holy Spirit testifies of their truth. And when we obey the Lord and keep His commandments, we receive blessings which show us that His promises are sure. Prayer, scripture study, and obedience clearly help to increase one's faith, but how do honesty, purity, and unselfishness do it?
I suppose they could be part of keeping the commandments, as we have been commanded to be honest, pure, and selfless. Perhaps it's that, as we do those things, we receive blessings which assure us that doing those things which are in line with God's will is a good idea. Additionally, doing these things makes us more like Jesus Christ, which may help us be more in-touch with His character, which may help us feel His presence.
Maybe we just have to have faith that the Apostles of the Lord give good advice that will help us increase out faith in Him, even if we don't understand exactly how their methods work. Maybe exercising faith in the counsel of the Lord's servants is part of how we increase our faith in the Lord. After all, faith is something you can grow by exercising it.
However these suggestions work, I'm sure that they do. I know that doing the things like praying, reading the scriptures, and keeping the commandments bring us closer to God and help us increase our faith in Him, and I trust that honesty, purity of thought and deed, and unselfishness will help, too.
1 comment:
Anytime we hear, read about, or do something good, we can feel the Holy Ghost's witness that it is good and true. That would definitely include things like: honesty, purity of thought and deed, and unselfishness.
Feeling the spirit and having a desire to follow what we read or hear, or continue doing good works increases our faith. Alma said that all we have to do to start growing our faith is have a desire to believe.
"...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." - Alma 32:27
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