May the Faith be With You

A few weeks ago a challenge was posed to me.  My mission was to move a brush with my faith.  "Go ahead," Sister McBride encouraged me.  "You can do it, move the brush by using your faith."

I stared at the brush for a while.  Move it with my faith?  What is she talking about?  I was halfway tempted to raise my hand and go all Star Wars on her and "use the force"...but I thought better of it.

Use the faith...Use the faith...As I stared at the plastic object before me it suddenly clicked.  With a smile I reached out and picked up the brush.  (Okay, it was actually a pen, but I didn't have a picture of a pen so I used my artistic license and changed it to a brush.)  My mission was accomplished.  I had moved the brush using my faith.

"Now, hang on a second," someone might say "you didn't use your faith, you did it yourself.  Faith is when it happens all by itself."  To which I would reply, "not quite, my friend.  Not quite.  You see, faith isn't just a passive belief, it is an active action.  Here, let me show you," and I would pull out my scriptures.  Flipping over to James 2 I would show what the scriptures say about faith and works.

In between verses 17 and 26 it says 6 times how faith is directly connected to works.  My favorite verse is the 18th one where it says "Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works."  We may say "I have faith" until the cows come home (which will take a long time because I don't own any cows), but it won't mean anything unless we are willing to act on what we believe.

Like with the brush.  If I had sat there thinking move....moooooooovvvee....move!!!  It probably wouldn't have budged an inch.  But when I put my faith into action on the belief that I could move the brush, it was a simple matter of muscle movement.

Another story?  Okay...there once was a woman who was very very sick, she lived around 30 A.D. and nothing the doctors did could cure her.  Nothing.  For twelve years.  She had spent all of the money and wealth she had in the hope of becoming well and still she was plagued with her illness.  She had faith in the doctors - she paid to have them come to her after all, she did act on that faith - but still she was left in her weakness.

One day she heard of a man named Jesus.  She heard that he had power to heal.  She said to herself "If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole."  So she left her home and went to the streets to where he walked.  It was crowded, there was a lot of people around him but she pushed forward in faith.  Faith in who?  Faith in Christ.

Reaching through the crowd she touched Christ's garment "and straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague."

What brought this healing?  After twelve years of doctors, what made it so instant?  Christ himself provides the answer: Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole;

She didn't simply wait for him to come to her, she reached out and did her part.  She believed in his power enough to act on that belief.  In doing so, she was blessed.

Our faith can be like hers in our day.  We show our faith in Christ in more than just word, but also by action.  How?  By doing as the Savior has done.  By showing love to all around us, by being obedient to the commandments even in the face of opposition.  Faith is an action word, and we live it every day.  When we reach out in faith, miracles will happen.  It's about more than just moving a brush, it's about moving the world.  By faith.