On Beginning to Believe…

We hear much concerning the subject of faith: that it will move mountains, that it is the “evidence of things not seen,” that with it all things are possible. And altogether we learn of it leads us to know that faith is indeed a great and desirable gift.

But suppose a man doesn’t have faith. Suppose he wants to believe, but doesn’t know how to go about beginning to believe. We must frankly face the fact that it seems easier for some men to believe than it does for others. And so comes the question: How does a person go about to begin to believe?

First of all, it would seem that he must want to. It is hard for an utterly unwilling person to begin to believe. But every man lives more by faith than is sometimes supposed. Every person who looks ahead at life, who makes any plan for the future, is doing so partly on faith, for no man knows how much future there is for him within the limits of this life.

Every man who steps into any kind of conveyance is, in a sense, declaring his faith, for he thereby commits himself to some uncertain circumstances. In a similar sense, every person who takes a prescription or submits himself to surgery shows some faith. Any person who eats food which he himself has not processed or prepared is proceeding in part on faith.

Every man who makes an investment has faith. Every man who travels to a country he hasn’t seen has faith—faith that he will find it. Everyone who counts on anything beyond this very instant, has a kind of faith within him.

Of course, this isn’t the kind of faith implied in some discussions of the subject; but neither, in fact, is it so far from it—for if a man can believe in some things unseen, he ought also to be able to believe in other things unseen.

We have to trust the Lord God for so many things—for life, for food, for rainfall, for the succession of the seasons, for all that pertains to tomorrow. For everything that isn’t past or present we have to have faith. So every man has much more faith than is sometimes supposed and can have yet much more, for “faith is not to have a perfect knowledge.”¹²¹ But it comes or increases with wanting to, with working for, with a willingness to believe, to keep the commandments, to test the promises, to prove the principles, to proceed with faithful performance, for “by faithfulness faith is earned.” As summarized in a sentence from the Saviour: “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine.”