It is a humbling opportunity and experience to stand before you this afternoon. I sense the tremendous responsibility of sharing a gospel message that will both edify and lift. I invite the Holy Ghost to unitedly touch our hearts and minds as we review the basic and first principle of the gospel. I also invite you to have handy pencil and paper to take notes and record your impressions that will come to your mind during our time together.
Today I would like to share my thoughts and impressions about the principle of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Two scripture references serve as the basis for my message.
The first reference is found in Luke 17 (p. 1308) and the second in Mark 9 (p. 1257). In Luke 17, and the preceding chapters the Savior had been teaching his disciples by precept and parable. He spoke of specific character traits - seeds of faith if you will, that are necessary in the development of true followers and candidates of the Kingdom of God. And as the apostles listened they recognized their personal weaknesses – their lack of faith and responded to the Savior in verse 5: "Lord, increase our faith.”
In the 9th chapter of Mark (p. 1257) a father struggling to care for his son who was possessed with a “dumb spirit,” requested that the Savior heal the child. In verse 23 we read the promise given to all. Said the Savior: “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” To which the father responded in verse 24 "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief”.
These two phrases "Lord, increase our faith” and “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief” are most appropriate for each of us as we gain experience in this laboratory of applied faith that is called mortality. Indeed, may our prayer be “Lord, increase my faith and help thou mine unbelief.”
So much depends upon our individual faith as the apostle Paul counseled “that, whilst …in the body, we are absent from the Lord… [and]…we walk by faith, not sight”[1] In fact our mortal life is so designed that we are to “overcome by faith”[2] all things. Adversity and opposition can increase our faith or instead can cause the troubling roots of bitterness to spring up. In those times of testing and trying, when we feel weak and our faith diminishing our prayer should be “Lord, increase my faith and help thou mine unbelief.” A personal experience of testing my faith in a gospel principle illustrates.
On January 19, 1970 I found myself standing on a doorstep in Fayetteville Arkansas waiting with my missionary companion for a response to our knock. I had been in the mission field exactly three days and was learning the art of tracting and door approaches. Of course I was nervous and afraid of the unknown behind the door. On the first door I had knocked on the day before, a Methodist minister answered and invited us to a “healthy” three hour discussion of the Bible with he and two other ministers. Today I hoped that things would be different.
As the door opened I started with our greeting and approach explaining that we had come with a message from a prophet of God about the Savior Jesus Christ. The man at the door asked what church we belonged to.
“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the Mormons” I replied.
“Oh, your prophet or whatever you call him died yesterday, didn’t he?” stated the man in the door.
“No,” I replied “Our prophet is David O. McKay and lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.”
“Yes, that’s him. He died yesterday,” said the man. “I just heard it on the news.”
Some of you might understand how I felt at that moment. I was nineteen, had been to one semester at Ricks College, received a mission call, spent five days in the mission home (MTC), and then sent to my mission area of Tulsa Oklahoma. I had been raised in a community where the LDS Church was in a minority but in a home where the seeds of a testimony of the restored gospel built upon prophets and apostles had been planted in my soul. My testimony of those principles at that time was small, having been tested only by my high school classmates. Now here I was in a strange place (Arkansas), among people that I didn’t know, without the comfort of my home, my parents and familiar ward members and told that the person I believed to be the prophet was gone.
I was devastated. I had put all of my trust and testimony at that time in the only prophet that I had known, President David O. McKay. Indeed at his passing two out of every three members of the Church had known no prophet other than President McKay who served from 1951 to 1970. He was known for his expansion of the Church's worldwide mission. He was well known for his quotes “Every member a missionary” and “No success can compensate for failure in the home.” Under his administration, the first stakes were created outside of the United States. He also strengthened Church membership with a renewed emphasis on the value of family life and education.
The test: Did I have the faith to accept a new president of the Church as the prophet? That day I wrote in my journal “His passing will be a great test (of faith) upon a lot of the people.” In the days that followed I felt much like the man who brought his afflicted son to the Savior to be healed who “cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief.”
Have you ever had such an experience where your faith was tested? Perhaps your faith has been tried by different circumstances such as the unexpected passing of a loved one, or a deep disappointment with a spouse or friend or a relationship that didn’t go as you had planned. Or perhaps the grade of an exam or a paper that you had worked so hard on didn’t meet your expectations. Perhaps you or someone you know suffers from an unrelieved illness or infirmity, “a thorn in the flesh…to buffet” you.[3]
In 1970 and at other times when my faith is tested and I feel weak I have prayed “Lord, increase my faith, I believe, help thou my unbelief.” To supplement that prayer I have found six fundamental factors that will assist in increasing our faith and diminish our unbelief. My message is for those whose faith may waiver without cause. For those who experience tests and trials that seem to be more than they can bear. And it is for those who are well founded and settled in their faith.
To begin with let’s first define what faith is and then add the fundamentals of increasing our faith.
What is faith? Suppose the person sitting next to you had asked you that question? How would you answer them? More than likely you would quote the scripture from Hebrews, chapter 11 or Alma 32: “Now faith is the substance [assurance] of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”[4]
Had you given this answer to the question “What is faith?” you would have received full credit on a multiple-choice test question– a good “pat answer” but does the meaning of that scripture definition settle deep in your being?
Joseph Smith wrote in Lectures On Faith, “From this we learn that faith is the assurance which men have of the existence of things which they have not seen, and the principle of action in all intelligent beings.”[5]
Please pay close attention to the last part of that quote. “we learn that faith is…the principle of action in all intelligent beings.” Faith is more than just believing. Sometimes faith and belief are used interchangeably in describing ones conviction or assurance of a principle. There is a difference between the two though. One cannot have faith without belief as Elder James Talmage explains:
"Belief is in a sense passive, an agreement or acceptance only; faith is active and positive, embracing such reliance only and confidence as will lead to works… One cannot have faith without belief; yet he may believe and still lack faith. Faith is vivified, vitalized, living belief."[6]
Belief then is the first fundamental to faith and increasing our faith. Many may think that they have faith simply because they believe. Having a belief in something requires no action - only a passive state of agreement or acceptance. As a young child the seeds of faith are first planted in our soul through observing our parents and church leaders and believing that what they did was right. Our observations did not require action but only a simple passive agreement or acceptance.
The children of Israel may serve as an example of how belief is turned to faith. As Moses led the children of Israel from captivity in Egypt they demonstrated a belief in the Lord. Let’s pick up the story in Exodus 14 (p. 100). You will remember the struggle that the children of Israel had in gaining their freedom from Pharaoh. In reality they engaged in little acts of faith in gaining their freedom. Their actions were more passive, agreeing with what Moses and the Lord was doing for them. They merely believed and followed. But their belief and small seeds of faith were soon tested. As the camp of Israel arrived at the Red Sea to their horror they saw the army of Pharaoh in hot pursuit. Note in verses 11-12 their reaction to the tribulation or adversity they faced: “And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?...Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians.”
At the first sign of trouble and a trial of their belief the faith of the children of Israel fainted and they were ready to give up. However the Lord had a great work for His children. He knew that they were weak in faith and had only a belief in Him through His prophet Moses as illustrated in verse 13: “And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day.”[7]
With that the Lord, through his prophet, parted the Red Sea and the children of Israel passed upon dry ground through the sea to safety. Like the children of Israel you and I have stood still in your youth and watched the workings of the Lord through your parents and Church leaders.
As a young boy of about eleven years old my father came home from his job one day and reported that the company he had been working for over the past 13 years was about to close down. He would have to find new employment. There were some concerns and challenges which tested our family’s belief and faith. Because of his early induction into the army and World War II my father neither had not completed high school nor had he worked for any other company leaving his resume wanting. I remember my father calling our family together to discuss our situation and then leading us in fasting and prayer. It can be said that my brothers and sisters and I did not exercise faith at that time, but we acted in agreement and acceptance of what my parents were telling us and what they were doing. Within a day of our family fast and prayer a new and better position was offered to my father and my belief increased to a faith in the principles of fasting and prayer.
The seeds of faith in gospel principles are planted through the foundation of believing. But there is more… Faith to be faith requires action. Action requires that each individual posses agency, the ability to act for themselves. Without agency there can be no action. Without action there can be no faith. During their captivity in Egypt the children of Israel did not have their agency. They were told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. Without agency they could develop little faith. It was this understanding that led the Saviors’ brother James to write:
“Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone…Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man that faith without works is dead?”[8]
So from the definition of faith we can see that to have faith we must follow a course of action. Of course our actions must be righteous and in compliance with the will of God and Jesus Christ. In some circumstances we are overcome by preoccupying cares of the world that we forget the purpose for which we act. This leads us to the second fundamental to increasing our faith and helping our unbelief.
The beginnings of faith require a desire to believe. Consider for a minute how you have felt when you heard an inspiring thought, hymn, or story? Did you have desire to go and do something good? Those feelings are not unusual and are spiritually founded - essential to our faith and eternal progress. As Alma taught the Zoramnites in chapter 32 the Lord will bless you “even if you can no more than desire to believe”[9] From these beginnings comes the “exercising of a particle of faith.” This desire will grow into a mature faith that can make things happen in your life. Elder Neil A. Maxwell taught:
"Desire denotes a real longing or craving. Hence righteous desires are much more than passive preferences or fleeting feelings… what we insistently desire, over time, is what we will eventually become and what we will receive in eternity."[10]
If our desire is “Lord, increase my faith and help thou mine unbelief” we must have the desire to do so “For I [said the Lord] will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts.”[11]
It is so important that we check and control our desires, the things for which we long or crave. What we desire will ultimately determine our eternal judgment as Alma taught; God “granteth unto men according to their desire, whether it be unto death or unto life.”[12] Those things that seem all-important to you now may not matter in years to come. You can choose now to want things that are in harmony with eternity or not. Elder Marion D. Hanks is quoted as saying: “The things that matter most must not be at the mercy of the things that matter least.”
To which I would add a quote I heard years ago: “The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what we want most for what we want at the moment.”
The third fundamental in increasing our faith and helping our unbelief is study. With respect to increasing our faith and helping our unbelief the Lord told Joseph Smith and the Church: “And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.”[13]
Remember our definition of faith? “Faith is…the principle of action in all intelligent beings” In this scripture notice the action required, “seek learning, even by study, and also by faith.” As a teacher I am approached by students that are uncertain of an upcoming test. The common indicators of their uncertainty or lack of faith is expressed in the phrases: “What should I study to prepare for the exam?” or during a lecture a student has been known to raise his/her hand and ask “Will this be on the test?” Other students that I am familiar with will fret and worry about an upcoming exam so that they cannot focus on their studies. They jump from one page of text or notes to another, trying to determine what is important and what is not. To these students I suggest the previous verse “And as all have not faith…seek learning, even by study and also by faith.”
Elder Maxwell adds: “Failure to study, … is to be intellectually and spiritually malnourished.” The words of the Savior and the prophets and apostles do matter in increasing our faith. The prophet Joseph Smith taught: “we understand that when a man works by faith he works by mental exertion instead of physical force. It is by words…with which every being works when he works by faith.”[14]
To be able to increase our faith we must obtain the words of God through study of the scriptures, and the writings of the prophets and apostles. Joseph Smith said: “Faith comes by hearing the word of God, through the testimony of the servants of God.”
Combined with study is the fourth fundamental– prayer.
Deep, sincere personal prayer is essential to our faith and will increase our faith and help us overcome the adversity that threatens our faith. Prayer is action and therefore is the implementation of faith. A familiar example of one who exercised his faith through prayer is the Prophet Joseph Smith. When he was 14 years old he was active in applying the fundamentals of believing, desiring, and study in attempting to increase his faith and overcome his unbelief. As he read from the book of James, chapter 1, verses five and six, a determination to pray came upon him. The same applies to us as we plead, “Lord, increase my faith and help thou my unbelief.”
"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."
"But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed."[15]
As young Joseph read that scripture the elements of faith started to emerge through his actions. He believed; he had a desire to know the truth; he studied and then made a determination to pray. Acting as an intelligent being Joseph exercised his faith and entered the grove of trees near his home on a spring day in 1820. As a result of his actions his faith was increased, and his unbelief became a sure knowledge. I testify that in that grove of trees that day Joseph Smith did learn the true nature of God the Father and His only begotten son, Jesus Christ. Indeed, he did see God the Father and Jesus Christ and testified that they both live! I testify that through the faith of Joseph Smith that the faith and unbelief of all individuals, including you and I can be increased and changed to full faith because of that experience. Think how different our lives would be if Joseph Smith had not exercised such strong faith.
To be effective our prayers must be sincere, consistent and selfless. The commandment is given to “exercise your faith,…that ye begin to call upon his holy name…and pray always…unto the Father in my name.”[16] What are your prayers like? How often do you pray? Do you have your sacred place in your apartment that you can go to in prayer? While serving as a campus Bishop I would ask those questions to the student members of my ward. Often I would get the answer “I usually say my prayers before I go to bed at night. But in the morning there isn’t enough time.” To which I respond: “When do you think you need protection and your faith increased more? During the daytime when you are awake and exposed to the world or at night while you are asleep?” The correct answer is to pray always, morning, night, during the day, always. Check your own status of prayer as we look at this next quote from President Howard W. Hunter:
"If prayer is only a spasmodic cry at the time of crisis, then it is utterly selfish, and we come to think of God as a repairman or a service agency to help us only in our emergencies. We should remember the Most High day and night– always– not only at times when all other assistance has failed and we desperately need help. If there is any element in human life on which we have a record or miraculous success and inestimable worth to the human soul, it is prayerful, reverential, devout communication with our Heavenly Father."[17]
The fifth fundamental to increasing one’s faith and helping our unbelief is service. Faith and service go hand in hand. Most here today can quote Mosiah 2:17, “I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.”[18] Service implies action. Action is the principle of our faith and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the priesthood’s dynamic power source. Without faith service to our fellow beings is not service to God. In our day and age service can be made easier through some of the modern conveniences made available through technology and electronic gadgets. However, these modern wonders can also play a role in reducing our individual faith. For example it is easy for me to type an email to family, friends or members of my stake or ward. That email can serve as a form of communication with those individuals. Once the “send” button is hit and the email is gone it may become easy to end my service there. I might rationalize “Okay, I’ve done my duty and it’s up to the other person to carry on.” or “I’m glad that I didn’t have to face that person and ask them to forgive me for being such a jerk– my email is great.” Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, former apostles Peter and Paul and other great people performed significant service without using emails, fax machines, or computers. Their power of service depended upon faith. Let us “remember that without faith, you can do nothing.”[19] As we provide righteous service our faith will increase. As the Lord commanded His apostles “He that believeth on me, the works that I shall do he do also; and greater works than these shall he do.”[20] With faith we can do all things “according to your faith.”[21]
You remember the story of Nephi and his brothers providing service in returning to Jerusalem to obtain the brass plates. At first they tried different ways to obtain the plates including charm, persuasion, wisdom, wealth. They failed. After their failure Nephi turned to faith. “I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do” Nephi later records.[22] He moved with faith, “the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Can we do the same? Do you walk by faith, putting your trust in the Savior of the unseen things? In the case of Nephi faith came first and then action. The rest of the story you already know. Listen to what President Ezra Taft Benson says about the need of faith in our service:
“Faith in Him (Jesus Christ) is more than mere acknowledgment that He lives. It is more than professing belief. Faith in Jesus Christ consists of complete reliance on Him. As God, He has infinite power, intelligence, and love. There is no human problem beyond His capacity to solve… He knows how to help us rise above our daily difficulties. Faith in Him means believing that even though we do not understand all things, He does.”[23]
The sixth fundamental of increasing our faith and helping our unbelief is worship. Worship is more than service. A lack of deep genuine worship erodes our faith. To worship is to give God our love, reverence, devotion and service. In this dispensation the Lord has commanded:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy might, mind, and strength; and in the name of Jesus Christ thou shalt serve him.”[24]
Our faith is weakened when we put other people or anything above the love of God. To do so is the practice of false worship. If the affections of our heart and our thoughts are directed toward God then our faith will be increased and our unbelief will diminish. Brigham Young was a man of great vision and faith. His faith in a living God and every principle and doctrine of the gospel was demonstrated in the way he lived and taught. He said the following with respect to faith and worship:
"If the Latter-day Saints will walk up to their privileges, and exercise faith in the name of Jesus Christ, and live in the enjoyment of the fullness of the Holy Ghost constantly day by day, there is nothing on the face of the earth that they could ask for, that would not be given to them."[25]
Worshiping our Father in Heaven day by day is easy. Prayer is one way we can worship our Father in Heaven. Daily scripture study is another. We can attend our church meetings– all three blocks- accept callings and serving with an eye single to the glory of God; do our home teaching and visiting teaching, attend devotional, read the Ensign and other Church publications. The list of proper worship– putting love of God first- goes on and on. In considering when and how we worship I would echo Alma’s words to the poorer Zormanites that had been cast out of their churches because of their poverty: “do ye suppose that ye cannot worship God save it be in your synagogues only? And moreover, I would ask, do ye suppose that ye must not worship God only once in a week?”[26]
That last question infers that our practices of worship should be more than just on Sunday. To act one way on Sunday and another way the rest of the week is being a double minded person that is “unstable in all his ways”[27] Decreased faith comes from trying to serve two-masters– “dividing our loyalty and allegiance between God and the world.”[28]
Carrying the natural man of the world becomes heavy requiring more of our energies thus reducing our ability to believe, study, pray, serve and worship the object of our faith– God the Father and Jesus Christ. Remember that the “natural man is an enemy of God…and will be forever and ever”[29] thus destroying faith.
But by yielding “to the enticings of the Holy Spirit and [putting] off the natural man…[and]…if ye give place, that a seed [of faith] may be planted in your heart…it will begin to swell…for it beginneth to enlarge [your] soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten [your] understanding, yea it beginneth to be delicious to [you]…Now behold would not this increase your faith?”[30]
Earlier I spoke of the Children of Israel and that they had the first fundamental of faith. As they traveled through the wilderness for 40 years their faith increased as they increased their desire to serve the Lord, to study, to pray, and worship properly. They struggled at times to put off the natural man that they had acquired for centuries in Egypt. Each step they took in the wilderness was a step of increasing their faith. They were taught simple ways to obey and worship. At one time as they “journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea,” the people become discouraged and started to complain again. In the twenty-first chapter of Numbers we read:
“Wherefore have ye [Moses] brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread [manna].”[31]
Their faith was being tested. They were tired of walking in the wilderness. They were without water and they were tired of having the same bread (manna) every day. As the complaining of the natural man increased their faith decreased. As recorded in Numbers 21 verse 6-9 the:
“Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.”
The fiery serpents got the peoples attention and they recognized their lack of faith. They asked for forgiveness and that the serpents would be taken from them. As we read in verses 8 & 9 the Lord did not take the serpents from them, but prepared a way that they would be spared from the deadly snakes. The Lord instructed Moses:
"Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live."
"And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass he lived."
This story illustrates the basic beginnings of increasing our faith. The required action demonstrating their belief and faith was to simply look at the serpent of brass and they would be saved. But because of how simple the action was many did not look and they died. Nephi put it this way: “after they were bitten he [God] prepared a way that they might be healed; and the labor which they had to perform was to look; and because of the simpleness of the way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished.”[32]
Now, my young friends and associates here at BYU-Idaho, we are much like the children of Israel. We are at different stages in increasing our faith and overcoming our unbelief. Metaphorically speaking our experiences and this campus is like unto the experiences and wilderness the children of Israel went through. The seeds of faith were planted in your homes prior to your coming to campus. At home you were under the tutelage of your parents or family members. For many, living at home was easier because you simply believed– agreed with or accepted what your parents did and told you. It was easy to go to church because it was the “accepted” thing to do. It was easy to have family prayer, to maintain a curfew, and to control the movies and television programs you watched. For some it may have been less easy but you still accepted that way of living. Here you are facing your own fiery serpents daily being subjected to the worldly ways of the natural man. If indulged in your faith will decrease. You are given the opportunity to exercise your agency, now you must act on your own, you must increase your faith and overcome your unbelief. Remember that part of the definition of faith is "the principle of action in intelligent beings." How you act in the choices you make will either increase or decrease your faith. The way is simple and easy. Like looking at the serpent of brass simply look to the words of Christ, the words of the prophets, campus faculty, staff and administration, and the words and example of your parents. Look to the temple and the scriptures. If you feel that your faith is failing, weak or not increasing then check the six fundamentals I have discussed- belief, desire, study, prayer, service, worship. Is one or more missing in your life? Are you preoccupied with the cares of the world– social status, dress, car, looks, etc.– which diminish faith and provide fertile soil for the seeds of unbelief to grow? As Paul councils “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”[33] While you are here take advantage of the opportunity of increasing your faith through study, prayer, service and worship. Recall the words of Alma to his son Helaman in chapter 37:
"Never be weary of good works…be meek and lowly in heart…for such shall find rest to their souls….learn wisdom in thy youth; yea learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God.”[34]
Then the warning and admonition:
"Do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever….yea see that ye look to God and live"[35]
If we believe, have righteous desires, study, pray, serve, and worship our faith will be increased. To have our faith increased is good but it is not the end…as Peter says:
"And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
"And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
"And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
"For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."[36]
That our faith may neither be barren or unfruitful and our desire ever be “Lord, increase our faith, and help mine unbelief” is my prayer for us all in the name of our Savior and Redeemer, even Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] 2 Corinthians 5:6-7, emphasis added
[2] Doctrine and Covenants 76:53
[3] 2 Corinthians 12:7
[4] Hebrews 11:1
[5] Lectures on Faith 1:9
[6] The Articles of Faith, Talmage, p. 96, emphasis added
[7] Exodus 14:11-13 emphasis added
[8] James 2:17-20
[9] Alma 32:27
[10] “According to the Desire of [Our] Hearts,” Ensign, Nov. 1996, 21
[11] Doctrine and Covenants 137:9; Jer. 17:10
[12] Alma 29:4
[13] Doctrine and Covenants 88:118, emphasis added
[14] Lectures on Faith 7:3
[15] James 1:5-6
[16] Alma 34:23, 3 Nephi 18:15, 19
[17] Hallowed Be Thy Name, President Howard W. Hunter, October 1977 Conference
[18] Mosiah 2:17
[19] Doctrine and Covenants 8:10
[20] John 14:11-12
[21] Matthew 9:29
[22] 1 Nephi 4:6
[23] Sermons and Writings of President Ezra Taft Benson, p. 7, emphasis added
[24] Doctrine and Covenants 59:5
[25] Journal of Discourses, vol. 11, p. 114
[26] Alma 32:10-11
[27] James 1:8
[28] In The Path of Their Duty, Elder David A. Bednar, Devotional September 1, 1998
[29] Mosiah 3:19
[30] Mosiah 3:19; Alma 32:28-29
[31] Numbers 21:4-5
[32] 1 Nephi 17:41
[33] 1 Cor 2:14
[34] Alma 37:34, 35
[35] Alma 37:46, 47
[36] 2 Peter 1:5-8