Faith in God

So I love church. A lot. It makes my day so, so wonderful, and it is the best end to my week behind me and start to the week I have ahead.

This week in Relief Society we talked about faith and repentance, but we spent most of the lesson on faith. Faith is a really great topic because it is one of those very basic principles we talk about a lot, but it is something you are constantly working on and constantly striving to be better at. So I love lessons on it, because they just give me a great reminder to be faithful and to strive to do my best.

"Teachings of Presidents of the Church- Joseph Fielding Smith" has a really great lesson on faith and repentance in chapter 5. He says a lot of good things:

 Let it be uppermost in your minds, now and at all times, that Jesus is theChrist, the Son of the living 
God, who came into the world to lay down his life that we might live. That is the truth, and is 
fundamental. Upon that our faith is built. It can not be destroyed. We must adhere to this teaching in 
spite of the teachings of the world, and the notions of men; for this is paramount, this is essential to   our salvation. The Lord redeemed us with his blood, he gave us salvation, provided—and there is this condition which we must not forget—that we will keep his commandments, and always remember him. If we will do that then we shall be 
saved, while the ideas and the foolishness of men, shall perish from the earth.⁹ 

I love how bold and solid this statement is. If we are faithful, we will be saved. It really is that simple, but we have to remember that being faithful is not just a declaration, it is an action. We cannot just say we believe and that's that. To truly be faithful, we have to show that faith, which involves doing what the Lord commands of us. That might require us to get out of our comfort zone, to give up things we really enjoy, and to make other sacrifices, but how can you say you love and believe in God if you won't trust Him? It's not always easy, but it will get better as your faith grows and you trust in God increases.

“Faith without works is dead” [James 2:26]—in other words, it does not exist. I think James’ meaning clearly is, “You show me your faith without  your works, and nothing will result; but I will show you my faith with my works, and something will be  accomplished.” [See James 2:18.] Faith means action. … Faith, therefore, is stronger than belief. …

  Faith is a gift of God. Every good thing is a gift of God. That is a teaching of the scriptures as found in the 11th chapter of Hebrews—which chapter is a very fine dissertation on faith—[and] in the revelations the Lord has given us in the Doctrine and Covenants, and in other scriptures.  Faith cannot be obtained by inaction or through indifference or passive belief.The mere desire to  obtain faith will not bring faith any more than the desire to be skilled in music or painting will bring  proficiency in these things without intelligent action. There is where our trouble comes. We get a  testimony of the Gospel, we believe in Joseph Smith, we believe inJesus Christ, we believe in the  principles of the Gospel, but how hard are we working at them?

Just something to keep in mind.