 |
 |
The Faith to Fulfill Our Purpose
In
preparation for zone training, Sister Eaton and I have asked you to study the
examples of faith you find from great men and women in the scriptures. Whether you choose to study Abinadi or Abish,
Mormon or Mary, Ammon or Abigail, ponder their examples with these questions in
mind:
- What evidence do you see of their faith?
- What can you learn from their example about how to exercise more faith to better fulfill your purpose?
- How can you be more like them as you strive to help others come unto Christ?
Such faith
comes, in part, from recognizing how God has answered our prayers and blessed
us in the past. When young David heard
the giant Goliath taunting the armies of Israel, he had no doubt that with
God’s help he could beat the giant, because with God’s help he had slain a bear
and a lion with his own hands in defense of his sheep. In fact, he seems to have been a shepherd
with a bit of attitude. When a bear took
one of his sheep, he caught the bear from behind and took him down. Knowing that God helped him in the past gave
him faith that God would protect him in the future when he was on the Lord’s
errand. As he explained to King Saul:
Thy servant kept his father’s sheep,
and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock:
And I went out after him, and smote him, and
delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by
his beard, and smote him, and slew him.
Thy servant slew both the lion and
the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he
hath defied the armies of the living God.
David’s faith
was not in his own abilities, but in his God.
So he was unmoved by Goliath’s giant tantrum when the Philistine saw
that Israel had sent a mere boy to fight him.
In one of the sweetest bits of inspired trash talking in the history of
the world, David responded to Goliath’s taunting with this bold retort:
Thou comest to me with a sword, and
with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of
hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.
This day will the Lord deliver thee
into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I
will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls
of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know
that there is a God in Israel.
And all this assembly shall know
that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s,
and he will give you into our hands.
With that,
the Philistine giant charged young David, who was armed only with his sling and
a few smooth stones. David could be
forgiven if he had dropped back a few steps like a quarterback getting ready to
throw as the giant charged him. To stand
his ground calmly and sling his stones would have been remarkable. But fueled by faith, David did something that
was either crazy or evidence of incredible faith: “David hasted, and ran toward
the army to meet the Philistine.” That’s
right, David ran toward Goliath, got close enough that his sling would be
deadly, and then took down the giant with a single stone: “David put his hand in his bag, and took
thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that
the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.” Game, set, and match—David. Actually, David would beg to differ. The battle was not his, he would have said,
but the Lord’s. (Read 1 Samuel 17 for
the whole story.) From David’s example,
I learn that when I remember how the Lord has helped me in the past, it builds
my faith that he will help me succeed in his work in the future. And when I remember that the battle is truly
the Lord’s, I feel I can do anything as his soldier.
The final
example of faith I will share is of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. These valiant Israelites lived in Babylon as
exiles, but through faith, perseverance, and diligence, they prospered. They gained the trust of King Nebuchadnezzar
and eventually were appointed to be governors over a province of Babylon. Unfortunately, it was there that King Nebuchadnezzar
chose to erect a 90-foot golden image. With
all the dignitaries in the land gathered for the dedication ceremony, the king commanded
all his subjects to bow down to the image or be thrown into a fiery furnace.
Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego had a choice to make: whether to prolong their political
careers and their lives by staying in the good graces of the king, or whether
to receive eternal life by staying in the good graces of God. They chose the real God and refused to bow
down. Their act of civil disobedience was not lost on their rivals, who quickly
pointed it out to the king. The king was
fond of these young Israelites, so he gave them a second chance and pled with
them to bow down to the idol like everyone else. “Who is that God that shall deliver you out
of my hands?” (Daniel 4:14).
What is
especially impressive about the faith that Shadrach and his friends exercised
is that what mattered to them was not whether their God would save them, but
whether he could. In fact, they did not
know whether he would save them; God had allowed many righteous prophets to be
slain. But they trusted God for the long
term, no matter what the short-term result.
Here is how they answered the king:
If it be so, our God whom we serve
is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us
out of thine hand, O king.
But if not, be it known unto thee,
O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which
thou hast set up.
(Daniel 4:17 – 18).
When we talk about but if not
faith, this is what we mean. It is
what my daughter exercised when she felt inspired to set high baptismal goals
and worked out her heart, knowing God could work mighty miracles, but if not,
well, she would have given it her all.
It is the faith to work hard and set goals we care about and serve God
whole-heartedly, week after week, even when we are not immediately seeing
baptismal fruit. From Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, I
learn that great faith requires humble submission and patience, pressing
forward and trusting in God with faith in his eternal promises, even if I
cannot be sure I’ll get the miracle I pray for in the short run.
May the
Lord bless you as you study your own faith heroes that you will learn, through
the Holy Ghost, the principles of faith you most need to help you better
fulfill your purpose as a missionary.
