Lord, I Believe; Help Thou Mine Unbelief

I think blog a lot about trials and finding happiness, joy, and comfort in life. This post is also about how faith can sustain us in our trials and offer us comfort in life, but the featured article focuses more on the level and devotion of our testimonies and how we can strengthen our faith so that it becomes the comfort we seek.

President James Faust (1920-2007), counselor to President Gordon B. Hinckley, taught, "Sustaining faith can be the ultimate comfort in life. All of us must find our own testimonies." If we seek that ultimate comfort and not simply the temporary, counterfeit comfort offered by the world, we must seek to strengthen our faith and thus grow our testimony of the Lord and what He has done.

President Faust continued:

A testimony begins with the acceptance by faith of the divine mission of Jesus Christ, the head of this Church; and the prophet of the Restoration, Joseph Smith. The gospel as restored by Joseph Smith is either true or it is not. To receive all of the promised blessings we must accept the gospel in faith and in full. However, this certain faith does not usually come all at once. We learn spiritually line upon line and precept upon precept.

We learn line upon line as we strive to live according to the ever-increasing light given to us. And the deeper our faith in the Savior and His gospel grows, the more comfort our testimony affords us.

The article this week is a talk entitled, "Lord, I Believe; Help Thou Mine Unbelief," given by President Faust in the October 2003 General Conference. President Faust taught how we can have a testimony without knowing everything or having a complete understanding of all gospel principles. He also taught, "those who believe but wish their belief to be strengthened, I urge you to walk in faith and trust in God. Spiritual knowledge always requires an exercise of faith. We acquire a testimony of the principles of the gospel by obediently trying to live them."

And so we must be constantly striving to increase our faith if we are to endure our trials well. The Lord loves each of us and suffered for us that He may know how to succor us in our infirmities. All He asks is that we come unto Him; that we get down on our knees and speak with our Heavenly Father, that we strive to do as He asks, and that we strive to make others' journeys more pleasant. We can find joy in the journey if we but believe.

Jeremy