Sunday Lesson, Nov 13th

The lesson today was on faith and testimony from the Howard W. Hunter manual. The teacher started by sharing the personal importance of this topic by sharing JS-Matthew 1:36 which talks of many, even the elect according to the covenant, being deceived in the last days. We need to build a strong testimony to help us remain on the right path and not be deceived.

President Hunter stated, “The supreme achievement of life is to find God and know that he lives.” We begin with a seed of faith and at first may not know the certainty of things, but as we continue to seek and ask we will eventually gain a sure knowledge.

The class then discussed some of the things that will change in our lives when we have faith in Jesus Christ. We will begin to see that everything; all of God’s creations follow God’s prearranged plan. We can have perfect confidence in all things being carried out according to that plan.

We also discussed how having faith gives us hope and perspective which helps us have peace and reduces stress in our lives when we go through hard times. We know that all things are in God’s hands and that it will be okay in the end. When we have faith we can see God’s hand in our lives and trust him during the good times and the hard times.

Finally we touched briefly on how to develop our faith into strong testimony. All things of value require effort on our part. Doubts will be resolved when we work hard to know the truth. President Hunter continued by explaining that when we have doubts, when they are approached with searching, prayer, and obedience to God’s commandments, our faith will “emerge from the conflict into a firmer, stronger, larger faith because of the struggle. They have gone from a simple, trusting faith, through doubt and conflict, into a solid substantial faith which ripens into testimony.” It is important for us to know for ourselves through experience and struggle.

President Hunter closed with his testimony that he knows of Christ’s reality as if he had seen him. We can also gain this powerful witness as we desire it and do the work to develop it. The teacher challenged each class member to have a lifelong goal of developing our faith and testimony in Jesus Christ and His Gospel so that we can receive eternal life.

- Karen