Our objective in mortality (and beyond) is to show to God that we are trustworthy. This is even more crucial as we approach the times where our faith will be tried like the ancients.
The wheat will be separated from the tares through tribulations. One of the purposes of tribulations is to try and test the hearts of purported believers and to refine and purify those who are true believers.
In other words, it is a sifting process that separates the sayers from doers; the true believers from the false.
We may believe we are righteous, good, and faithful to God. And then we face a test like Job. How do we respond? Do we remain faithful despite the torrents of chaos and hardship swirling before us or do we crumble under the weight of it all?
Our faith, then, is revealed in the limits we impose upon God.
Some Christians believe that being faithful to God will spare them from hardships. While faith in God will help us to avoid unnecessary suffering, the pattern of our faithful progenitors reveals that our faith in God will likely put us in the fire, causing us to give up a lot in the process.
The question will be whether we think the loss will be worth it. As Christ instructed, before we embark to serve God we ought to count the cost. This is for each one of us to decide. But it will be our choice and we’ll be held accountable for it.
Those who qualify for the Celestial Kingdom have decided that receiving that Kingdom is worth any loss they could experience on earth.
But for most -- if not all -- coming to this mindset where we can give all for God does not happen overnight. The principle of advancement is line upon line -- grace upon grace. It is how the Savior grew and it is how we are to grow (see D&C 93). Indeed, by small and simple means are great things brought to pass.
As mentioned in the previous post, having a desire to want to grow serves as the initial inertia to move us forward. Over time and steady acquisition of habits our character grows. At a fundamental level, as we take action to change and grow we exercise faith.
Faith is Universal
Faith is not simply exercised by the religious, but is exercised by all. The difference is where we choose to place our faith.
Further, faith is required for societies to flourish. Just think, our daily activities operate on the belief that the people around us and our institutions will behave reasonably. We trust that when we get on a plane, that the pilot knows what he is doing, the airline workers are performing their job as well as traffic control. We further trust that the plane was built according to specifications and there are no defects.
This line of thinking can be applied to a host of other things: to restaurants where we trust the food is safe, to doctors where we trust the doctor operating on us knows what he is doing, and the list goes on. I encourage you to take time to ponder about how the ways trust operates in our life. You will find that trust is deeply embedded into all of your relationships.
We also see what happens when trust is betrayed: things break down and some degree of chaos ensues.
These examples are numerous and some of them were displayed during the COVID pandemic where many of the experts we trusted to provide us reliable information were exposed to have their own agendas. But this isn’t the only area. Trust in our democratic system peaked in the 60s and took a major hit after Watergate. Except for the 1980s where there was a resurgence in trust, trust in the U.S. government has been declining leading to more division in politics.
We can also apply this to a betrayal of trust from friends or family members. The betrayal is a deep wound that is hard to heal and makes us less likely to rely or confide in the person again, thereby affecting our relationship with that person in a real way.
When it comes to God, God tests our faith to see how much we trust him and how much he can rely on us. I will be discussing this concept more in depth in another post, but I’ll touch on the big hitters. For now this post and the next will cover the three major aspects to faith
- God's Trust in Us
- Our trusting in God
- And our acting to bring order out of chaos (which I’ll discuss in another post due to time)
God's Trust in Us
God tests our faith to see how reliable we are so he can decide how great of a role -- and how big -- we will play in his kingdom. If we show time and time again that we will cave in under pressure, then God can’t use us for big things because there is no guarantee we will pull through. In other words, we aren’t reliable.
Therefore one aspect of faith is how reliable we are to God.
To drive home this point, consider that you are an employer and you are looking to promote an employee to a prestigious managerial position. You have many applications. Who do you choose? Do you choose the employee who shows up to work late and submits his projects late? Or do you choose the employee who is on time, completes his projects on time, hits his sales goals, and has as shown is ability to tackle and succeed in difficult assignments?
The answer is obvious. You choose the reliable employee. So it is with God.
Upon entering the borders of the promised land, Moses explained God’s purpose for their sojourn in the wilderness.
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. (Deuteronomy 8:2)
The word translated as “prove” (or "to prove") comes from the Hebrew word nasa. It means to test and try. For instance, David declined to wear the armor to fight against Goliath because he had not “proved” the armor. In other words, because the armor had not been tested and ensured it would work, it was not reliable for David. Nasa is the same word used to describe God’s testing of Abraham's faith (see Gen 22:1) and to describe the Lord’s use of the Philistine neighbors to test and try Israel’s faithfulness.
We are tested to see how reliable we are. How much we trust and love God. Those who operate at the highest level of God’s kingdom are those who embody the Deuteronomic injunction to love God with all heart, might, mind, and soul.
To love God this way means we are absolutely surrendered to him. God is not merely worshiped as a convenience, someone who we revere once a week, but instead he is treated as our oxygen. Christ exemplified this as he did nothing through his life that the father would not do.
Trusting God
But in addition to God developing trust in us, we also develop trust in him. In fact, this type of faith is symbiotic. The more we demonstrate our trust in God, the more he trusts us and gives us greater responsibility.
The great thing, however, about placing faith in God is that we won’t be let down. Sure, things may not go the way we want them, but if we trust him until the end, we will see that he is leading us to the best outcome--just as any loving father would. Lehi’s family being led to the promised land -- out of the desert and out of captivity -- is one example that comes to mind. The journey to the promised land was difficult and required a lot of hardship along the way, but I’d imagine that those who remained faithful saw the outcome was far better than they could have imagined given their circumstances.
Daniel risked offending King Nebuchadnezzar (which at that time would have meant death) when he refused to violate the dietary laws of the Torah. Yet, God prevailed with him and he was healthier and stronger than the other eunuchs.
This is what God does and I imagine he loves showing us how he always will pull through -- especially when the decks are stacked against us.
We say “it can’t be done!” And God responds, “just watch.”
When it comes to habits it is in our best interest to develop a habit of having faith in God. Faith in God is the only way we can overcome the world because God is the only being who knows how to do it. That’s why he is who he is. Everything that doesn’t come from God will let you down. It will prove unreliable. But God has testament after testament of his reliability.
Yet, getting to this point where one can have full faith in God takes time. As Alma beautifully illustrates in his multilayered allegory of the tree, faith takes nourishment and time (i.e., diligence and heed) to sprout and develop.
So where do we begin?
To begin having this faith we must have some evidence of it.
There are some theologians who argue that faith comes in the absence of evidence. I disagree. Faith is built upon evidence. This doesn’t mean that our faith will have all the evidence (or as used in the scriptures “perfect knowledge) to justify our belief -- otherwise it would not be faith. But there will be enough upon which we can form a basis.
This happens in our everyday life. If everyday we woke up to hear about planes falling from the sky, I’d imagine that fewer and fewer people would fly. And surely our trust in their reliability would be weakened. We have trust in planes because evidence shows they are the most reliable and safest form of transport.
This same principle applies with having faith in God. It will be very hard to trust God in major ways if we haven’t had evidence in our life of God’s reliability.
We marvel at the faith of David who killed Goliath, but David didn’t trust God on a whim. David had assurances from God that God would protect him.
First, David had reason to believe that God would spare him because he was anointed king. Can’t be a king on earth if you're dead.
But second, David had previous experiences of God preserving him when God gave David the ability to kill a lion with his bare hands. In fact, in persuading Saul to let him fight Goliath, David appeals to this fact.
And David said unto Saul…The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. (1 Samuel 17)
David, then, had the faith to fight against Goliath because he already had evidence of God’s faithfulness. David reasoned that if God preserved me there, he would preserve me here.
Likewise, when Sherem sought to lead the people away, Jacob remarked how he was able to be unshaken in his faith:
And he [Sherem] had hope to shake me from the faith, notwithstanding the many revelations and the many things which I had seen concerning these things; for I truly had seen bangles, and they had ministered unto me. And also, I had heard the voice of the Lord speaking unto me in very word, from time to time; wherefore, I could not be shaken. (Jacob 7:5)
Like David, Jacob’s faith in the Lord could not be shaken because of the abundant evidence he had of God.
While true the creation and ordering of heaven and even how our bodies operate bear witness of a creator, they do not bear witness to the nature and character of this Creator -- just that he (or it) exists. This is why you can have people who are not Christians believe in intelligent design and/or spirituality, but ascribe the creation to the “universe” not to the God of the Bible.
Those who develop exceeding faith in God are those who have had their faith tried in exceeding ways. If they remain faithful, then they have greater evidence of God’s reliability and are able to endure even greater challenges.
As Joseph Smith remarked when he was on the run from the mob and away from his family:
I have thought it expedient and wisdom in me to leave the place for a short season, for my own safety and the safety of this people…and as for the perils which I am called to pass through, they seem but a small thing to me, as the envy and wrath of man have been my common lot all the days of my life; and for what cause it seems mysterious, unless I was ordained from before the foundation of the world for some good end, or bad, as you may choose to call it…deep water is what I am wont to swim in. It all has become a second nature to me; and I feel, like Paul, to glory in tribulation; for to this day has the God of my fathers delivered me out of them all, and will deliver me from henceforth; for behold, and lo, I shall triumph over all my enemies, for the Lord God hath spoken it. (D&C 127: 1-2).
Although the end times will be challenging and will try us to our utmost, it will, if we allow it, be a blessing because it will serve as a way to prove our faithfulness to God. If we remain faithful, then we will receive the greatest reward in heaven.