Cultivating Faith

After I completed yesterday's post, I began thinking and pondering about the last quote I had put in there : "Cast out doubt, cultivate faith." As I thought about it, the phrase kept entering my mind, How can I cultivate faith?  Many things begin to enter my contemplation, so I thought I would share some of them.

A lot of them are what people call "Sunday School Answers" but I dug a little deeper. I didn't just think, read the scriptures, I thought about why reading the scriptures was important. So, here are a few ways I thought about cultivating faith.

First, I thought about how important it is to have the desire to believe. In Alma 32:27 it states: But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.

It is important to me to note though, that this is just the beginning of faith, not the ending.  This is where you plant the seed, hoping that it will result in more faith. Hope is a precursor that is linked to faith, and desire is the precursor to hope. You have the desire, you hope, and then you begin to have faith.


Another quote from the book"Bringing Elizabeth Home" states:

"Hope, like faith, is the evidence of things not seen. You can't have faith without hope. Hope is like the precursor to faith, and faith becomes the sustaining power. If you give up hope, you give up faith. None of those things are diminished by the outcome of whatever happens in our lives. We will all have adversity. We can either become stronger and better because of it, or weakened because of it. Our faith can be strengthened through our hard times."

By reading the scriptures, you are allowing yourself to learn by the best teachers. Past prophets who prophesied of God and of our Savior Jesus Christ. If you immerse yourself in the scriptures, allowing the Holy Ghost to teach you, your faith will grow, and you will be taught.

There are many ways to read and ponder the scriptures though. I think sometimes we get stuck on reading them in order. I find what works for me, is to pick a topic and study it. So, for example, since I'm writing about faith, I look up all the scriptures that are about faith and I study them.

Another way to cultivate faith, is to go to church. I think this is a huge thing. Yes, it isn't always possible, and many times when you have small kids, you begin to wonder if it is worth it, but it is. I find that often when I go to church, I am taught by both the scriptures and the Holy Ghost. If I have a question that has been weighing on my mind, or a concern, or a thought, there have been many times where what I need to learn and what I need to know will be brought to my mind. It's quite amazing really.

Our stake president once taught us in stake conference, that if we are mentally prepared horizontally, we will be taught by the spirit vertically. I can always tell when I am mentally prepared!

Prayer is definitely a way of cultivating faith. When we pray intently to our Heavenly Father, about our problems, hopes, desires, gratitude, etc., we become closer to Him. Our trust in Him is increased, and as a result, our faith is increased. You have to have trust in God, to have your faith increase, trusting that He knows best, and that all we experience is for our good.

I could have partially wondered that at the beginning of last year, but because of experiences that I had, and continue to have, I feel stronger. Yes things are still hard at times, there is still adversity, but there is also a greater desire to continue on and continue to grow.

There are many other ways to cultivate faith. I really feel like I've just scratched the surface. As I continue to search and ponder, I may have to write another post on more ways to cultivate faith.