One of the most powerful, life-changing concepts taught in the Book of Mormon is the connection between faith, hope, and charity, and how these three principles together lead us to The Fountain of All righteousness.
During the process of adding the Book of Ether to the Book of Mormon, the prophet Mormon received some revelation from the Lord about us, the people of the latter days. This is a part of it:
"Behold, I will show unto [them] their weakness, and I will show unto them that faith, hope and charity bringeth unto me—the fountain of all righteousness." (Ether 12:28)
In this article, we'll talk a little bit about what faith, hope and charity really are, and why we need the Fountain of All Righteousness.
Faith
At the end of a day of sermons, the resurrected Lord prepared to leave the Nephites, to return again in the morning. He sensed their powerful desire to have Him stay for just a little longer. He responded to this by consenting, and then He said, "...I see that your faith is sufficient that I should heal you." (3 Nephi 17:8)
I believe what the Lord perceived in them at that moment was a sense that, if He would provide the opportunity, they would ask Him to heal them, and they believed that if they would ask, He would do it.
To me, faith is familiarity with the Lord's overwhelming desire to help us, and His infinite power to do so. Faith is trusting in the Lord's good care, in His grace. Faith is a willingness to ask and to do our part, believing that we will receive.
Mormon wrote a letter to his son, in which he said, among other things:
"And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." (Moroni 7:33)
Faith gives us access to the powers of heaven - the very same power by which Christ both lived a perfect life and worked His many miracles. The Savior taught that by faith, we can do things that are supposed to be impossible:
"And Jesus said unto them, ...verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." (Matthew 17:20)
When we have learned to access the powers of heaven by faith, for living the gospel, we begin to grow in that faith. To the degree we believe and ask and do our part, we have the powers of heaven making it possible for us to live the gospel as never before. To the degree we believe and ask and do our part, that same power enables us to do the things the Savior did. Living the gospel by faith is no less a miracle than moving a mountain by faith, for truly we all have figurative "mountains" in our lives that have proven impossible to move. Nevertheless, when we access the powers of heaven by faith, we can move those mountains, and nothing will be impossible unto us!
Hope
Once you've experienced having your mountain start to move, you can't help but feel hope welling up inside you. This mountain in your life that has until now, by its refusal to budge, brought only continual despair, discouragement, and even self loathing... is beginning to move! By faith, you begin to get the idea that if you and the Lord keep it up, your mountain will not be able to hedge up your way into freedom for much longer!
Having that kind of hope makes you believe in the process even more than you did before. You invest more effort, become more diligent at keeping the Lord involved, and your capacity to live the gospel grows and grows, beyond your wildest expectations - what joy!
Mormon understood how the cycle of hope and faith builds on itself:
"And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope? And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise. Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope. And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart. If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart" (Moroni 7:40-44)
Notice the connection between having faith and hope, and being meek and lowly of heart. When, through faith and hope, we start to feel the Lord's power and love and grace and wisdom coming into our lives, we start to see how many of the things we never thought of as wrong can threaten our access to that power. We start to feel like the Lord is taking care of us, like we no longer need to be act or feel "that way" anymore. The need is being met a different way. Meekness and lowliness of heart is a direct consequence of feeling the Lord's care in our lives. When our focus is on conforming our lives to the Lord's will with his power and love and wisdom enabling us to do it, faith, hope, meekness, and lowliness of heart all interact to strengthen each other. When these things reach a certain point, the cycle of faith and hope takes on a new dimension and begins to accelerate as we enter into the next phase of our spiritual development: charity.
Charity
Typically, when we think of charity, we think of the kinds of things Mother Theresa did: we think of giving and serving and taking care of the needy. But the scriptures use the word "charity" very differently.
The apostle Paul said:
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing... And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." (1 Corinthians 13:1-3, 13)
Mormon described charity this way:
"But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him." (Moroni 7:47)
The experience of being loved by Christ brings healing for pain, salvation from sin, and help for our weakness. The more we feel Christ's love for us in our lives, the more we cannot help but love Him. The experience of loving Christ incites in us a willingness - even a strong desire - to sacrifice for Him in ways we would not and could not otherwise do.
When we feel the pure love that Christ has for us, we no longer need our shoddy coping mechanisms, our bad habits, our harrowing addictions, our hard feelings, our poor attitude. We have no need for these things because the pure love of Christ is far, far sweeter, and more fulfilling to the human soul!
When we begin to feel pure love toward Christ, it makes us not just willing but desirous to sacrifice for Him. We find certain things in our lives that we once thought of as not being 'wrong' are now irrelevant. We catch ourselves doing things that others feel are not 'expected of us', things we don't do out of a sense of obligation, but rather because we are looking to do something we know the Lord will appreciate. We cannot feel our Savior's overwhelming love for us without connecting it to His sacrifice for us in Gethsemane and at Golgotha. We cannot feel His love and His willingness to sacrifice for us and not want to do the same for Him. With charity - the pure love of Christ - in our lives and in our hearts, it becomes a small thing to "take up [our] cross and follow [Him]". (Matthew 16:24, Luke 9:23)
How do you know when faith and hope have taught you charity? The process changes who you are at the core, and it shows in many ways:
"And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen." (Moroni 7: 45-48 Compare 1 Corinthians 13:4-10)
These things are all symptomatic of charity, which is the true spirit of righteousness. Charity is a dynamic that involves us loving Christ and him loving us, so that through our faith and hope, and his atoning sacrifice, we become new creatures in Him, and old things are passed away.
As we develop charity, our love for Christ and His love for us begin to spill over toward other people. We can feel His love for the people around us, and we want to love them too.
Without charity, the Lord's commandments seem like an impossible list of dos and don'ts; our interactions with our fellow man - especially family - can be frustrating and disappointing. But charity causes us to see the Lord's commandments and every interaction with our fellow man as an opportunity to love both Him and them.
The Fountain of All Righteousness
I love what Mormon says about "pray[ing] with all energy of heart, that [we] may be filled with this love". Feeling the Lord's love for us is something we have to pray for. It is a thing that, if we will seek it and experience it, teaches us a deep and abiding, slowly growing loyalty to God. Knowing how our loving Heavenly Father feels about each of us is an experience we usually have to ask for, one that will change our lives if we will do it.
If we want to learn charity, we have to learn to ask the Lord for help with small things in our lives. Having that kind of personal relationship with our Savior changes who we are - makes us more and more like Him. The cycle of faith, hope and charity starts with one simple act: asking.
Speaking to the people in the valley of Gideon, Alma the Younger said:
"And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive. And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works." (Alma 7:23-24)
Asking starts the cycle and keeps it going! Ask for help in those moments when you most need it, and you automatically combine your doing with the Lord's helping, and this is the epitome of faith. Do that, and you'll see the Lord start to move your mountains for you, and this is cause for great hope! With those two things in your life, you can pray and ask with all energy of heart to know the Lord's deep and personal love for you, and He will show it to you. The result will be Him loving you enough to save you from sins you no longer need, and you loving Him enough to sacrifice the things that get between you and Him, things that, in the knowledge of such love, are no longer hard to do without. That's how we become firm and immovable, always abounding in good works. This is charity, the greatest of all! It starts and ends with asking - drawing from The Fountain of All Righteousness. The flame of charity is kept alive by asking for our Heavenly Father's help in all things, and by loving both God and fellow man.
The most important prayer we can utter in mortality - the prayer we should be praying three dozen times a day - is this: Lord, please help me! Having Him answer that prayer gives you a lot to thank Him for when you get on your knees at the end of each day.
We don't pray because we're too weak to function without God; we pray because life is so infinitely much better when He's a constant part of it.
You could probably live out a long, productive life without ever doing a single minute of exercise. But you'll never be an Olympian that way, or even be able to run or hike like you're in shape. Similarly, you can go through life without ever uttering a single word of prayer, and there is a lot that human beings can accomplish that way. But you'll never become an example of the believers that way, and you'll never know the great joy that comes with a steady stream of small and increasing successes at living the gospel. However, if you'll start looking for opportunities to have the Lord help you do and think and feel about things the way you know you should, you'll be surprised at what you can accomplish - and how it feels to accomplish those things.
How to Pray
We Need to Get Started
Mormon taught that getting this cycle going in our lives is a critical part of being truly happy:
"Wherefore, there must be faith; and if there must be faith there must also be hope; and if there must be hope there must also be charity. And except ye have charity ye can in nowise be saved in the kingdom of God; neither can ye be saved in the kingdom of God if ye have not faith; neither can ye if ye have no hope. And if ye have no hope ye must needs be in despair; and despair cometh because of iniquity. And Christ truly said unto our fathers: If ye have faith ye can do all things which are expedient unto me." (Moroni 10:20-23)
During the process of adding the Book of Ether to the Book of Mormon, the prophet Mormon received some revelation from the Lord about us, the people of the latter days. This is a part of it:
"Behold, I will show unto [them] their weakness, and I will show unto them that faith, hope and charity bringeth unto me—the fountain of all righteousness." (Ether 12:28)
In this article, we'll talk a little bit about what faith, hope and charity really are, and why we need the Fountain of All Righteousness.
Faith
At the end of a day of sermons, the resurrected Lord prepared to leave the Nephites, to return again in the morning. He sensed their powerful desire to have Him stay for just a little longer. He responded to this by consenting, and then He said, "...I see that your faith is sufficient that I should heal you." (3 Nephi 17:8)
I believe what the Lord perceived in them at that moment was a sense that, if He would provide the opportunity, they would ask Him to heal them, and they believed that if they would ask, He would do it.
To me, faith is familiarity with the Lord's overwhelming desire to help us, and His infinite power to do so. Faith is trusting in the Lord's good care, in His grace. Faith is a willingness to ask and to do our part, believing that we will receive.
Mormon wrote a letter to his son, in which he said, among other things:
"And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." (Moroni 7:33)
Faith gives us access to the powers of heaven - the very same power by which Christ both lived a perfect life and worked His many miracles. The Savior taught that by faith, we can do things that are supposed to be impossible:
"And Jesus said unto them, ...verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." (Matthew 17:20)
When we have learned to access the powers of heaven by faith, for living the gospel, we begin to grow in that faith. To the degree we believe and ask and do our part, we have the powers of heaven making it possible for us to live the gospel as never before. To the degree we believe and ask and do our part, that same power enables us to do the things the Savior did. Living the gospel by faith is no less a miracle than moving a mountain by faith, for truly we all have figurative "mountains" in our lives that have proven impossible to move. Nevertheless, when we access the powers of heaven by faith, we can move those mountains, and nothing will be impossible unto us!
Hope
Once you've experienced having your mountain start to move, you can't help but feel hope welling up inside you. This mountain in your life that has until now, by its refusal to budge, brought only continual despair, discouragement, and even self loathing... is beginning to move! By faith, you begin to get the idea that if you and the Lord keep it up, your mountain will not be able to hedge up your way into freedom for much longer!
Having that kind of hope makes you believe in the process even more than you did before. You invest more effort, become more diligent at keeping the Lord involved, and your capacity to live the gospel grows and grows, beyond your wildest expectations - what joy!
Mormon understood how the cycle of hope and faith builds on itself:
"And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope? And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise. Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope. And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart. If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart" (Moroni 7:40-44)
Notice the connection between having faith and hope, and being meek and lowly of heart. When, through faith and hope, we start to feel the Lord's power and love and grace and wisdom coming into our lives, we start to see how many of the things we never thought of as wrong can threaten our access to that power. We start to feel like the Lord is taking care of us, like we no longer need to be act or feel "that way" anymore. The need is being met a different way. Meekness and lowliness of heart is a direct consequence of feeling the Lord's care in our lives. When our focus is on conforming our lives to the Lord's will with his power and love and wisdom enabling us to do it, faith, hope, meekness, and lowliness of heart all interact to strengthen each other. When these things reach a certain point, the cycle of faith and hope takes on a new dimension and begins to accelerate as we enter into the next phase of our spiritual development: charity.
Charity
Typically, when we think of charity, we think of the kinds of things Mother Theresa did: we think of giving and serving and taking care of the needy. But the scriptures use the word "charity" very differently.
The apostle Paul said:
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing... And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." (1 Corinthians 13:1-3, 13)
Mormon described charity this way:
"But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him." (Moroni 7:47)
The experience of being loved by Christ brings healing for pain, salvation from sin, and help for our weakness. The more we feel Christ's love for us in our lives, the more we cannot help but love Him. The experience of loving Christ incites in us a willingness - even a strong desire - to sacrifice for Him in ways we would not and could not otherwise do.
When we feel the pure love that Christ has for us, we no longer need our shoddy coping mechanisms, our bad habits, our harrowing addictions, our hard feelings, our poor attitude. We have no need for these things because the pure love of Christ is far, far sweeter, and more fulfilling to the human soul!
When we begin to feel pure love toward Christ, it makes us not just willing but desirous to sacrifice for Him. We find certain things in our lives that we once thought of as not being 'wrong' are now irrelevant. We catch ourselves doing things that others feel are not 'expected of us', things we don't do out of a sense of obligation, but rather because we are looking to do something we know the Lord will appreciate. We cannot feel our Savior's overwhelming love for us without connecting it to His sacrifice for us in Gethsemane and at Golgotha. We cannot feel His love and His willingness to sacrifice for us and not want to do the same for Him. With charity - the pure love of Christ - in our lives and in our hearts, it becomes a small thing to "take up [our] cross and follow [Him]". (Matthew 16:24, Luke 9:23)
How do you know when faith and hope have taught you charity? The process changes who you are at the core, and it shows in many ways:
"And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen." (Moroni 7: 45-48 Compare 1 Corinthians 13:4-10)
These things are all symptomatic of charity, which is the true spirit of righteousness. Charity is a dynamic that involves us loving Christ and him loving us, so that through our faith and hope, and his atoning sacrifice, we become new creatures in Him, and old things are passed away.
As we develop charity, our love for Christ and His love for us begin to spill over toward other people. We can feel His love for the people around us, and we want to love them too.
Without charity, the Lord's commandments seem like an impossible list of dos and don'ts; our interactions with our fellow man - especially family - can be frustrating and disappointing. But charity causes us to see the Lord's commandments and every interaction with our fellow man as an opportunity to love both Him and them.
The Fountain of All Righteousness
I love what Mormon says about "pray[ing] with all energy of heart, that [we] may be filled with this love". Feeling the Lord's love for us is something we have to pray for. It is a thing that, if we will seek it and experience it, teaches us a deep and abiding, slowly growing loyalty to God. Knowing how our loving Heavenly Father feels about each of us is an experience we usually have to ask for, one that will change our lives if we will do it.
If we want to learn charity, we have to learn to ask the Lord for help with small things in our lives. Having that kind of personal relationship with our Savior changes who we are - makes us more and more like Him. The cycle of faith, hope and charity starts with one simple act: asking.
Speaking to the people in the valley of Gideon, Alma the Younger said:
"And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive. And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works." (Alma 7:23-24)
Asking starts the cycle and keeps it going! Ask for help in those moments when you most need it, and you automatically combine your doing with the Lord's helping, and this is the epitome of faith. Do that, and you'll see the Lord start to move your mountains for you, and this is cause for great hope! With those two things in your life, you can pray and ask with all energy of heart to know the Lord's deep and personal love for you, and He will show it to you. The result will be Him loving you enough to save you from sins you no longer need, and you loving Him enough to sacrifice the things that get between you and Him, things that, in the knowledge of such love, are no longer hard to do without. That's how we become firm and immovable, always abounding in good works. This is charity, the greatest of all! It starts and ends with asking - drawing from The Fountain of All Righteousness. The flame of charity is kept alive by asking for our Heavenly Father's help in all things, and by loving both God and fellow man.
The most important prayer we can utter in mortality - the prayer we should be praying three dozen times a day - is this: Lord, please help me! Having Him answer that prayer gives you a lot to thank Him for when you get on your knees at the end of each day.
We don't pray because we're too weak to function without God; we pray because life is so infinitely much better when He's a constant part of it.
You could probably live out a long, productive life without ever doing a single minute of exercise. But you'll never be an Olympian that way, or even be able to run or hike like you're in shape. Similarly, you can go through life without ever uttering a single word of prayer, and there is a lot that human beings can accomplish that way. But you'll never become an example of the believers that way, and you'll never know the great joy that comes with a steady stream of small and increasing successes at living the gospel. However, if you'll start looking for opportunities to have the Lord help you do and think and feel about things the way you know you should, you'll be surprised at what you can accomplish - and how it feels to accomplish those things.
How to Pray
We Need to Get Started
Mormon taught that getting this cycle going in our lives is a critical part of being truly happy:
"Wherefore, there must be faith; and if there must be faith there must also be hope; and if there must be hope there must also be charity. And except ye have charity ye can in nowise be saved in the kingdom of God; neither can ye be saved in the kingdom of God if ye have not faith; neither can ye if ye have no hope. And if ye have no hope ye must needs be in despair; and despair cometh because of iniquity. And Christ truly said unto our fathers: If ye have faith ye can do all things which are expedient unto me." (Moroni 10:20-23)
A prophet by the name of Helaman taught his sons:
"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." (Helaman 5:12)
Building on the rock of the Redeemer and drawing from the Fountain of All Righteousness really are one and the same thing.
What's In the Book of Mormon? The Secret to Building on the Rock of the Redeemer
Nephi taught that the love of God "...sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things...yea, and the most joyous to the soul." (1 Nephi 11:22-23)
Learning charity is an essential part of experiencing the joy that comes with living the gospel of Jesus Christ!
The Importance of Living Water
The Lord was able to live a perfect life despite feeling the temptations of the flesh because He was and is the Fountain of All Righteousness. He had within himself that fountain to draw from. If we too would live a life filled with true righteousness, we must learn to draw every drop of that righteousness from the same Fountain, which is Christ, the Lord.
So often we cease to believe and come to discouragement - the opposites of faith and hope - because of failure. But if we will hold onto faith and hope, sufficient to gain access to the Fountain of All Righteousness, He will supply knowledge and power that enable success.
So often we feel we are going it alone, like the Lord won't help or isn't helping us. We don't realize how much He wants to help, or what He can and will give to our effort if we'll just ask. But, to put it in the Lord's words:
"If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, [keep my commandments]; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water... whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." (John 4:10-14, 14:15)
Living water is knowledge and power from the Lord. That's His gift, and He gives it freely. Our ability to live the gospel is directly proportional to our trust in this gift of grace and His willingness to supply it.
Following the destruction of the Nephites and Lamanites because of wickedness, the Lord lamented:
"...how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, yea, O ye people of the house of Israel, who have fallen... yea, how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens, and ye would not." (3 Nephi 10:5)
The Lord wants to help us, and He can! All we have to do is want it badly enough to ask and do our part!
Learn more about our need for living water and the role the Lord can play in our lives.
An Experiment
I would challenge you to keep track of how many times you pause and mentally connect with your Heavenly Father throughout each day - most especially those moments that don't require getting on your knees. If it's shy of three-dozen, try going to a new level in terms of the kinds of things you ask for help with. Keep adding to your list of things you ask for help with until you get to three-dozen. This process will teach you handfuls of new uses for prayer that you never thought of before.
If you'll keep looking for opportunities to have the Lord help in your life, you'll be amazed and overjoyed at the the subtle, small things that begin to change in you. The biggest, most immediate changes are the ones that affect the things you think and feel throughout each day. As the weeks go by, you'll find yourself changing in subtle ways that others will eventually notice, ways that will be different for everyone.
It has been through power supplied by The Fountain of All Righteousness, which is Jesus Christ, that I have been able to do some of the badly needed overcoming I've dealt with in my life. That effort to overcome has proved to be no easier than moving a mountain, and yet I have seen the Lord move it for me. He can do the same for you.
I have experienced the Lord's great love for me, and knowing that, how can I continue to choose the way of sin over having his great love and help and power and wisdom be a part of my life? I can't! So, slowly, I begin again the process of becoming a new creature in Christ, and I invite you to join with me. Get on your knees, start asking, start loving in a new way, and watch the Lord bless you and change your life immeasurably!
"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." (Helaman 5:12)
Building on the rock of the Redeemer and drawing from the Fountain of All Righteousness really are one and the same thing.
What's In the Book of Mormon? The Secret to Building on the Rock of the Redeemer
Nephi taught that the love of God "...sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things...yea, and the most joyous to the soul." (1 Nephi 11:22-23)
Learning charity is an essential part of experiencing the joy that comes with living the gospel of Jesus Christ!
The Importance of Living Water
The Lord was able to live a perfect life despite feeling the temptations of the flesh because He was and is the Fountain of All Righteousness. He had within himself that fountain to draw from. If we too would live a life filled with true righteousness, we must learn to draw every drop of that righteousness from the same Fountain, which is Christ, the Lord.
So often we cease to believe and come to discouragement - the opposites of faith and hope - because of failure. But if we will hold onto faith and hope, sufficient to gain access to the Fountain of All Righteousness, He will supply knowledge and power that enable success.
So often we feel we are going it alone, like the Lord won't help or isn't helping us. We don't realize how much He wants to help, or what He can and will give to our effort if we'll just ask. But, to put it in the Lord's words:
"If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, [keep my commandments]; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water... whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." (John 4:10-14, 14:15)
Living water is knowledge and power from the Lord. That's His gift, and He gives it freely. Our ability to live the gospel is directly proportional to our trust in this gift of grace and His willingness to supply it.
Following the destruction of the Nephites and Lamanites because of wickedness, the Lord lamented:
"...how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, yea, O ye people of the house of Israel, who have fallen... yea, how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens, and ye would not." (3 Nephi 10:5)
The Lord wants to help us, and He can! All we have to do is want it badly enough to ask and do our part!
Learn more about our need for living water and the role the Lord can play in our lives.
An Experiment
I would challenge you to keep track of how many times you pause and mentally connect with your Heavenly Father throughout each day - most especially those moments that don't require getting on your knees. If it's shy of three-dozen, try going to a new level in terms of the kinds of things you ask for help with. Keep adding to your list of things you ask for help with until you get to three-dozen. This process will teach you handfuls of new uses for prayer that you never thought of before.
If you'll keep looking for opportunities to have the Lord help in your life, you'll be amazed and overjoyed at the the subtle, small things that begin to change in you. The biggest, most immediate changes are the ones that affect the things you think and feel throughout each day. As the weeks go by, you'll find yourself changing in subtle ways that others will eventually notice, ways that will be different for everyone.
There is a children's hymn in the LDS hymnbook that I think captures the whole point of this article in surprisingly simple and beautiful language:
"Teach me to walk in the light of His love. Teach me to pray to my Father above..." (LDS Hymns #304)
"Teach me to walk in the light of His love. Teach me to pray to my Father above..." (LDS Hymns #304)
I have experienced the Lord's great love for me, and knowing that, how can I continue to choose the way of sin over having his great love and help and power and wisdom be a part of my life? I can't! So, slowly, I begin again the process of becoming a new creature in Christ, and I invite you to join with me. Get on your knees, start asking, start loving in a new way, and watch the Lord bless you and change your life immeasurably!
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