Faith Still Precedes the Miracle | Mark L. Pace | 2019

Описание: Mark L. Pace teaches that just as in scriptural times, faith still precedes the miracle in our day. We can show our faith by keeping God's commandments.

This devotional was given on October 29, 2019.

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© Brigham Young University. All rights reserved.

My dear brothers and sisters, it is a pleasure and an honor to be with you here today. This is a remarkable institution with a worldwide influence for good—and you certainly make it even better because of your individual contributions. I pay tribute to President Kevin J Worthen and those who serve with him in guiding this university to fulfill its divine purpose. Thank you for your devoted and remarkable service.

Last spring my wife, Anne Marie, and I ­visited with President Russell M. Nelson in his office, where he extended to me the calling that I ­currently hold.

I asked him, “President Nelson, what would you like me to do as the Sunday School president?”

His reply included the humble request that I encourage an ever-increasing use of the Come, Follow Me resource by the members of the Church.

So I share with you that request from the prophet of God and thank you for your personal efforts this year in reading the New Testament. You may not realize this, but by accepting and acting on the prophet’s invitation, you are strengthening the Church. How? As you study the scriptures throughout the week, you welcome the Holy Ghost into your life. This increased influence of the Holy Ghost builds your faith in the Savior Jesus Christ and deepens your conversion. The collective strength of the conversion of each member is, in a very real way, the strength of the Church. So we thank you for strengthening the Church by studying the New Testament this year.

I consider this a sacred opportunity to address you today, and I have prayed earnestly to know what the Lord would have me say. The promptings of the Spirit have led me to talk of the importance of acting in faith and to remind you that faith still precedes the miracle.

Inspiring Discourses on Faith
In the Book of Mormon there is an absolute jewel in Ether 12. Most of the book of Ether is an account of the history of Jared and his people. We learn from Moroni’s abridged record how the Jaredites were brought to the American continent and became a great civilization, with periods of righteousness and prosperity as well as periods of wickedness, war, and apostasy.

In Ether 12, Moroni recorded the continued slide of the Jaredites. They rejected the prophets, and the blessings of heaven were withdrawn. One prophet in particular, Ether, prophesied “great and marvelous things unto the people, which they did not believe, because they saw them not.”1

And with that phrase—“they did not believe, because they saw them not”—Moroni suddenly paused his historical narrative and launched into an inspiring discourse on faith. It was as if Moroni had just realized that faith could have been the antidote to the wickedness that led to the destruction of the Jaredite nation. If only they had been able to believe before seeing, maybe they would have repented and been spared. Of course Moroni knew that it was too late for the Jaredites, but he wasn’t writing to the Jaredites. He was writing to each of us, and it is not too late for us. Moroni wanted us to know that faith is the antidote to the wickedness of the world in which we live. So Moroni took the opportunity to teach us that

• “by faith all things are fulfilled.”2

• “faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.”3

• “if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them.”4

• “neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith.”