Faith Takes Work

In his talk on faith in the April general conference, President Nelson said this: “Your mountains will vary, and yet the answer to each of your challenges is to increase your faith. That takes work. Lazy learners and lax disciples will always struggle to muster even a particle of faith.” He continued, “To do anything well requires effort. Becoming a true disciple of Jesus Christ is no exception. Increasing your faith and trust in Him takes effort.” He gave us an invitation of things we can do to increase our faith and then emphasized again, “Faith takes work. Receiving revelation takes work. But ‘every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.’ God knows what will help your faith grow. Ask, and then ask again.” This has certainly been a theme recently of President Nelson: it takes diligent effort to grow spiritually and to live the gospel. He said to a group of children last year when asked if it was hard being the prophet: “Of course it’s hard. Everything to do with becoming more like the Savior is difficult. For example, when God wanted to give the Ten Commandments to Moses, where did He tell Moses to go? Up on top of a mountain, on the top of Mount Sinai. So Moses had to walk all the way up to the top of that mountain to get the Ten Commandments. Now, Heavenly Father could have said, ‘Moses, you start there, and I’ll start here, and I’ll meet you halfway.’ No, the Lord loves effort, because effort brings rewards that can’t come without it.” Certainly to grow our faith as he has invited us will take great effort.

               President Nelson is of course not suggesting that we should depend on our own strength or that somehow we can earn our way to heaven through sheer determination. It is only through the grace of Jesus Christ and His power that we can overcome weakness, sin, and death and ultimately return to the Father. But the Lord Himself has asked us to give our all to Him so He can then lift us higher. As He said in the Sermon on the Mount: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Nephi put it this way: “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25:23). We too should labor diligently in being reconciled to God and doing His will, and as we do all in our power to follow Him, then His grace will save us. In this week’s Come, Follow Me reading the Lord put it this way: “It is my will that you should go forth and not tarry, neither be idle but labor with your might…. Let every man be diligent in all things. And the idler shall not have place in the church, except he repent and mend his ways.” We labor with our might, seeking to be diligent in all things, and we have this promise from Him: “And he who is faithful shall overcome all things, and shall be lifted up at the last day” (Doctrine and Covenants 75:3, 16, 29). The Lord and President Nelson’s invitation is for us to be diligent in the spiritual work of becoming like the Savior. As the prophet stated in another talk several years ago, “There is nothing easy or automatic about becoming such powerful disciples. Our focus must be riveted on the Savior and His gospel. It is mentally rigorous to strive to look unto Him in every thought…. Drawing the Savior’s power into our lives is to reach up to Him in faith. Such reaching requires diligent, focused effort…. When you spiritually stretch beyond anything you have ever done before, then His power will flow into you.”