Faith Factor!

Did you ever watch Fear Factor? I remember watching it with my dad when I was quite a bit younger. I remember being completely grossed out when contestants had to complete challenges such as eating worms or sitting in a barrel full of cockroaches for as long as they possibly could. Ick!

What is fear? Fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.

Fear is an emotion that Satan wants us to have because he knows it will hold us back from reaching our full potential. About a month ago, we had a meeting with some of the other missionaries that serve in the area near where I'm currently serving. We talked about our fears and what keeps us back from sharing the gospel or from being the missionaries that God wants us to be. We each took a small pumpkin and wrote our fears on it.

Sister Williams and I holding our fears in our hands!

We talked about having the faith to SMASH our fears. Yes, we literally smashed our fears on our pumpkins with a baseball bat. It was awesome. Honestly, I felt like I put my baseball family to shame because of my inability to use a baseball bat...but that's beside the point. I hit my pumpkin on the first swing! Woo! haha.

By smashing my pumpkin, I committed to exercise faith in Christ to help me overcome my fears.

Some of my fears that keep me from sharing the gospel included:

• being judged
• my own pride
• not knowing how to answer really hard questions
• tick bites (yes, I actually put that on my pumpkin... I'm afraid I'll be walking up to someone's door and have to walk through tall grass where there are tons of ticks!)

Honestly, I don't have a ton of fears that are keeping me back from fulfilling my purpose as a missionary, but those are the biggies. When I smashed my pumpkin, I committed to living my own Faith Factor reality show! 

What is faith? 

And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true. Alma 32:21

Faith is a principle of action and power! It's believing in something that you can't see, and then doing something about it and trusting that God will take over the part that we have no control over. That's when miracles happen! :) 

My little Faith Factor reality show is simply explained in what is called the Faith Cycle. 

27. But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.

 28. Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief...

The left side of the cycle in green is what we can control. This is how we show our faith to God. Once we do what we can, we put it all into God's hands and trust that He will take care of the rest. Our mission was visited by one of our world wide leaders, Elder Kopischke. He taught us about this faith cycle and said, "Faith is really the attitude that I have about the things that I can control." I'd never thought about it in that way before! Just because I don't see the miracle that I want right away doesn't mean that I have a lack of faith! It's all about the commitment I have to walk my side of the cycle. The rest of the verse talks about how God will take over the rest of the faith cycle.

 ...that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.

 29. Now behold, would not this increase your faith? I say unto you, Yea Alma 32:27-29

What fears do you have that are keeping you from fulfilling your purpose in life? How are you going to walk the faith cycle and play your own reality game show of Faith Factor? I challenge you to exercise your faith by walking the faith cycle. Pick a fear that you have, and then take it to God. Ask Him how you can improve and then do all you can. I promise that even if you don't see immediate results from the "power" side of the cycle, they WILL come in God's time.

I know faith works! I love the confidence it gives me knowing that so long as I'm doing what I can, I can give it all to God and trust in His outcome. Faith truly does precede the miracle! :)