Good Morning or Good Afternoon or Good Evening,
this post should take five minutes to eight minutes to read from start to finish.
This post focuses on BYU (Brigham Young University) Devotional in October 2019, and it is called "Faith Still Precedes the Miracle" by Brother Mark Pace. This post is part two, and I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the Devotional.
Brother Pace has mentioned the following; "Pattern Number 1: Following the Lord’s Living Prophet
... Brother Walker was born in England in 1832. ... On Sunday, October 19, 1862, at the end of Sabbath meetings, Charles heard his name read among a list of 250 others who had been called to help settle the “Cotton Country” in southwestern Utah.
Brother Walker wrote in his journal that evening: Obedience [is] a great principle in heaven and on earth. Well, here I have worked for the last 7 years through heat and cold, hunger and adverse circumstances, and at last have got me a home, a lot with fruit trees just beginning to bear [that] look pretty.
Well, I must leave it and go and do the will of my Father in Heaven, who overrules all for the good of them that love and fear him, and I pray God to give me strength to accomplish that which is required of me in an acceptable manner before him.
On November 13, only twenty-five days after having received his call, Charles Walker and his wife left Salt Lake City and began their journey to what we now know as St. George.
In his journal he wrote: This was the hardest trial I ever had, and had it not been for the gospel and those that were placed over me, I should never [have] moved a foot to go on such a trip, but then I came here not to do my will but the will of those that are over me, and I know it will all be right if I do right.
... Charles Walker put his trust in God, and he was blessed. He remained faithful to his call from the prophet all his days. ...The faithfulness of Charles Walker preceded the miracle of a righteous posterity. Your faith in following the living prophet throughout your lives will have the same result. The faith to follow the living prophet still precedes the miracle.
Pattern Number 2: Attending Our Sunday Meetings
To illustrate this pattern of faith, I would like to share the story of the Merchan family from the Barcelona Spain Stake. ... Contemplate the price Brother and Sister Merchan were willing to pay to establish faith and conversion in their lives and in the lives of their children. They exercised their faith and left the miracle in the hands of the Lord.
So what miracles were made possible through their faith?
... Brother and Sister Merchan have remained firm and steadfast in their testimonies of the Lord Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. They hold current temple recommends. Bryan, their son, served a full-time mission. He attends the ward in Granollers and has a calling in the Church and a current temple recommend.
Carol, their daughter, was married in the Madrid temple. She also lives in Granollers and attends the ward there. She also has a current temple recommend. Now it is not likely that you and I will be required to make an eleven-hour sacrifice to attend our Sunday meetings.
But we might ask ourselves what price we are willing to pay for the conversion of ourselves and our posterity. That blessing will come as we exercise the faith to partake of the sacrament weekly. The faith to attend our Sunday meetings still precedes the miracle.
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| "My dear friends, examples of faith are not confined solely to the scriptures. Great faith was also demonstrated by Saints early in this dispensation. And it is clearly evident in our fellow Saints with whom we live day to day." |
At the beginning of the October 2018 general conference, President Russell M. Nelson said: The adversary is increasing his attacks on faith and upon us and our families at an exponential rate. To survive spiritually, we need counter strategies and proactive plans.
Then, approximately twenty-nine hours later, on Sunday afternoon, he closed the conference with this promise: As you diligently work to remodel your home into a center of gospel learning, . . . the influence of the adversary in your life and in your home will decrease.
How can the attacks of the adversary be increasing exponentially while at the same time the influence of the adversary is actually decreasing? That is the promise and the blessing from the Lord’s living prophet. The Come, Follow Me resource is the Lord’s counter strategy and proactive plan.
As President Nelson taught, “The new home-centered, Church-supported integrated curriculum has the potential to unleash the power of families.” However, it does and will require our best efforts. We need to follow “through conscientiously and carefully to transform [our] home into a sanctuary of faith.”
In the April 2019 general conference, Elder David A. Bednar said: Making our homes sanctuaries wherein we can “stand in holy places” is essential in these latter days. And as important as home-centered and Church-supported learning is for our spiritual strength and protection today, it will be even more vital in the future.
Studying the scriptures with the Come, Follow Me resource as our guide ... Our act of faith in studying the scriptures daily protects us and our families from the influence of the adversary. The faith to study the gospel in our home still precedes the miracle.
Pattern Number 4: Paying Tithes and Offerings
... Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
... We pay our tithing because we have faith, not because we have money. Like all acts of faith, paying tithing leads to miracles. ... The day will come, if it hasn’t come already, when your faith regarding tithing will be tested. Perhaps you will have some financial challenges, and you might wonder if you can pay your tithing and also meet your other financial commitments.
The adversary will tempt you to put off the payment of tithing. That will be the moment when you show the Lord, and yourself, who you really are. ... The blessings promised by Malachi in the Old Testament are still received today. We can show our faith by always being current in the payment of our tithes and offerings.
The faith to pay our tithes and offerings still precedes the miracle.
Pattern Number 5: Attending the Temple
During the same general conference in which he warned of the exponential increase in the assaults of the adversary, President Russell M. Nelson shared an additional counter strategy and proactive plan to protect us: spending more time in the temple: Our time in the temple is crucial to our salvation and exaltation and to that of our families.
... Each one of us needs the ongoing spiritual strengthening and tutoring that is possible only in the house of the Lord. ... Our need to be in the temple on a regular basis has never been greater. I plead with you to take a prayerful look at how you spend your time. Invest time in your future and in that of your family.
If you have reasonable access to a temple, I urge you to find a way to make an appointment regularly with the Lord to be in His holy house then keep that appointment with exactness and joy. I promise you that the Lord will bring the miracles He knows you need as you make sacrifices to serve and worship in His temples.
... Now I am not suggesting that the Lord expects you to attend the temple every week, nor am I saying that doing so will mean you will be blessed with more children. What I am saying is that miracles come only after we exercise faith. I am saying that a love for the temple and sensitivity to the Spirit there comes from being in the temple.
These blessings do not come by reading about the temple or thinking about the temple. They come from being in the temple. As you exercise your faith to, in President Nelson’s words, “make an appointment regularly with the Lord to be in His holy house then keep that appointment with exactness and joy,” you will discover similar miracles in your lives. The faith to attend the temple still precedes the miracle.
A Great Strength to the Lord’s Work
My dear brothers and sisters, I commend you for the goodness of your lives and your devotion to the Savior and His gospel. How noble you are and how valuable is your contribution. You are and will continue to be a great strength to the Lord’s work.
I encourage you to establish now these patterns of faith that will bring miracles and blessings to you and your posterity:
1. Following the Lord’s living prophet 2. Attending our Sunday meetings
3. Participating in home-centered gospel learning
4. Paying tithes and offerings
5. Attending the temple
I pray the Lord’s blessings upon you. May you establish patterns of faith now that will precede the miracles you need in your life, because faith still precedes the miracle."
If you would like to read the whole Devotional either now or in your own time, here is the link below.
Stay tuned until next time.
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