Faith, Hope and Forgiveness
I have been asked to talk about three things and how they all relate and connect. I’ll start out a little bit with faith. In True to the Faith, it states. “Faith is a principle of action and power. Whenever you work toward a worthy goal, you exercise faith. You show your hope for something you cannot see.” Like this states, faith is a principle action and power. Faith isn’t passive. You show it through action. We can’t just say our faith is built by reading the scriptures. That is stating something you need to. Actually reading your scriptures which builds faith because that is an action we are actually doing something to build faith.
Another example of building faith by action is striving to keep those covenants you’ve made with our Heavenly Father. That is action because you are trying obey the laws and commandments he has laid down to help us return to live with him again. Now we all fail ever yday with one thing or another. And is it like, “Oh no, I’ve messed up, now I can’t come back to Heavenly Father.” I know I have been guilty of that at times, especially since I stress a lot. But, then I remember the Atonement. And it reminds me that through my faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I have hope that I can be forgiven for my sins. Isn’t that a truly amazing thing? And that brings the next two topics I’d like to discuss into play. Hope and Forgiveness.
We have two different definitions in True to the Faith of hope. It says, “in our everyday language the word often has a hint of uncertainty.” That is very true, we tend to use the word in phrases such as “ I hope I can get all my work done.” “I hope it doesn’t rain.” or in the mission world, “I hope I get a letter today.” All of those have hints of uncertainty in their usage. We don’t have total confidence in those statements. But true to the faith state. “In the language of the gospel, however, the word hope is sure, unwavering, and active. Prophets speak of having a firm hope” The prophet Moroni taught in Ether 12:4. Now there are two phrases I want to point out in that scripture. The first is where it says,”Whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world”. You can substitute the word believeth out for the word faith. We now have “Whoso have faith in god might with surety hope for a better world”. Through our faith we gain that no wavering hope. Also, if we look back at the definition of faith it says at the end, “...you show your hope for something that you cannot yet see.” They build off of each other, faith and hope. When you show your hope for something you have faith it will happen when the time comes. As you exercise that faith you build that unwavering hope.
Keeping that in mind, I want to look at the other phrase in that scripture. “Which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men. Which would make them sure and steadfast.” This phrase right here backs up what I was saying of hope comes from faith and vice versa. You can’t have one without the other. There are two prime examples of hope and faith working together. The first one is of Joseph Smith and the first vision. We all know how he read James 1:5 but lets add verse 6 as well. Note how it says “let him ask in faith nothing wavering”. Joseph had that faith, “nothing wavering”. He had that firm hope that God would answer his prayer. Then comes those amazin words describing the greatest thing to happen in this last dispensation. “I saw a pillar of light, exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. When the light came to rest upon me I saw the personages, whose brightness and glory defies all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said pointing to the other, “This is my beloved son. Hear him.”
The example of faith and unwavering hope is truly amazing here. A fourteen year old boy had as James put it, “Faith nothing wavering” to know if he asked God the questions and desires of his heart that God would and did answer these questions and desires. Another example of faith and hope is the Book of Mormon. That right there is the keystone of our religion. None of us here saw the gold plates it is translated from, but all of us here have that faith and hope that God called Joseph Smith to translate it. That it truly is another testament of Jesus Christ and is from God. Without that faith and hope we wouldn’t be members of this church.
Talking about Joseph Smith lead us into forgiveness. We all know the stories of the persecution of the early saints. One that really stood out to me comes from the book Our Heritage. It’s the taring and feathering of Bishop Partridge. It reads, “The mob next seized Bishop Edward Partridge and Charles Allen. They were taken to the public square in Independence and commanded to renounce the Book of Mormon and leave the county. Bishop Partridge said, I told them that the saints had suffered persecution in all ages of the world, that I had done nothing which ought to offend anyone, that if they abused me, they would abuse an innocent person, that I was willing to suffer for the sake of Christ, but to leave the county, I was not then willing to consent to it.”
With this refusal the men were stripped of their outer clothing and their bodies were covered with tar and feathers. Bishop Partridge oberved, “I bore my abuse with so much resignation and meekness that it appeared to astound the multitude, who permitted me to retire in silene, many looking very solemn, their sympathies having been touched as I thought; and as to myself, I was so filled with the spirit and love of God, that I had no hatred towards my persecutors or anyone else.”
After everything that was done to him all the physical abuse of his body, the challenge of his spiritual beliefs, the loss of his dignity, he still forgave them and had love for them. Even after everything that happened. Another example of forgiveness is our savior himself. He came to the world for our sins and was scorned and hated by many. And he sets that perfect example of forgiveness upon the cross. He prays for the Roman soldiers saying,”Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” If Christ can forgive them while dying on the cross, how come we can’t forgive others? It’s hard. We all can think of countless reasons why we shouldn’t or can’t. Some reasons are, “they don’t care, they don’t deserve my forgiveness, they won’t stop, or even I don’t want to”. The list can go on and on, but the point is there is no legitimate reason. Holding in that anger towards someone destroys you and your spirit.
Contention drives out the spirit. If you don’t forgive someone you just always have that rotten feeling inside. You can’t experience joy and happiness if you can’t forgive someone because the anger and hate fils the places where joy and happiness resides. Thats a burden that weighs down on the soul. I ask you to give that burden to our savior. He died to bear that burden for you and me. He forgives us for everything done wrong big or small. But he asks us to forgive each other. If you can’t forgive someone for something, Christ can’t forgive you because you won’t give him all you sins and burdens. It’s sad to think we don’t use Christ’s amazing gift of the atonement because we can’t forgive someone for this or that.
I know it is hard. I can’t say I’m perfect and that I’ve forgiven people always for everything wrong they’ve done to me, but I’m working on it. I have the faith and hope that as we strive to forgive others for everything wrong done unto us, we can’t help but experience the joy and happiness of that burden being lifted; of fully feeling that love of our savior from the atonement.
There is a talk by A. Dean Byrd in this months Ensign called “Anticipating the need to forgive”. It’s a great talk overall, but there is a specific story in it called learning to forgive.
Christ’s Atonement can cover any and all things involving forgiveness if we allow it. Doesn’t matter how long ago it happened or how bad it was, the Lord’s Love knows no bounds. Today of all days is a great day to apply this principle. It’s been ten years since that fateful day we all remember as those planes crashed into the world trade centers. Thousands of people died that day and thousands more have died on both sides in the years following. What they did may be wrong, yes, but they are still children of our Heavenly Father. Here is an interesting story concerning the terrorists of 9-11.
(He didn’t write down what story he told here, so we just assume he told them one.)
I ask you to take that question to mind and ponder it in your hearts as you go throughout the rest of the day. Forgiveness, faith, and hope are key to everything we have to do to succeed in returning to our Heavenly Father.
I leave you my testimony that through our faith and hope we can be forgiven of any and all things. That Christ’s sacrifice can help us forgive others of everything they’ve done to us and that we can fill our life with joy and happiness, I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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