Hebrews 11:1 {FAITH}

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 

At first this scripture can be a little confusing but take a breath and read it again.  Faith is hoped for, the evidence of things not seen...faith is not seen.  So what does that mean?  How do I know what is faith or if I have faith or how to get faith and keep it?  There are so many answers around you and I and look in the scriptures.  Look further in chapter 11 and you see Abel had faith and Enoch and Noah.  Abraham had faith and Sara to conceive at a older age then should have been possible.  In this chapter alone I found more than 17 accounts of faith.  What a beautiful blessing to know that even when we go in blindly but we believe, we have faith that things will all wok out.  

When you look up faith in the topical guide it says in parenthesis, assurance, believe, obedience, trust.  All of these things mean faith.  In the bible dictionary it talks of faith in Romans 10:14-17 that strong faith is developed by obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ, it comes by righteousness.   I can think of many instances of faith in my life.  Especially after I found the church.  Just having faith to be baptized.  I started the discussions in August and was baptized Sept 7th...I knew, I had faith that what I was doing was right, even though I didn't understand it all I knew it was right and there has been so many examples since then.

 

What a great example of faith.  Jesus feeding the multitude with 5 loaves and 2 fished.

{GRACE}

This week in my religion class we hit lots of grace words...we read lots Romans, Ephesians, Acts, Philippians, Philemon and 1 Timothy.  Many Grace words and I got to thinking what "Grace" means to me. And a song I sang lots as a child growing up in the Baptist church.  The chorus goes, "Grace, grace, God's grace, grace....to me, to me..."BUT as I looked it up in the Bible dictionary other things popped out to me.   It says grace is used frequently especially in the new testament in the writings of Paul.  The main meaning is “divine means of help or strength” given through the mercy and love of Jesus Christ.  I love this thought of grace.  There are songs and endless scriptures about grace we even have friends whose names are Grace. So in Ephesians 2:8 for example it says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:”  and if we switch out Grace for divine means of help or strength.  It gives it a bit of wow for me.  I understand that it is not because of our supper smarts we are saved it is because of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that we are saved.  Not by our own doing, but with help.  What a humbling process for some.  I know all that I have is because of the choices I make good and bad.  Grace is the help and strength given to me to make the correct choices.  Some one also recently said, grace is not just given to us but we have to work at it.  There is a scripture that says grace without works is dead, or to that effect. Tell me your thoughts on Grace.  There are many helps out there and some of my favorites are at lds.org

2 Corinthians 7:16

I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things.

I love this verse.  To me it says our Heavenly Father loves us, no matter our faults, he has faith that we are strong in making good and right choices.  It says that I don't have to be scared that he has my back, no matter what happens, if I make a mistake I can repent.  If I do something good he is happy.  That is just as we do for our family and children, love them unconditionally and cheer them on to be the best.  Our Heavenly Father is doing the same.  This truly hit home for me this week and it reinforced my decisions that were tough ones to make and I made them, not on my own and I feel I did the right thing.  What a blessing  this is to know what I did and see that he has confidence in me.  So the next time you doubt or wonder.  Remember it says it right here in the scriptures...I can touch it and see it.  What a blessing that is for me.