To have faith is to “hope for things which are not seen, which are true” (see Book of Mormon, Alma 32:21 and Hebrews 11:1). Each day you act upon things you hope for, even before you see the end result. This is similar to faith.
Faith in God is more than a theoretical belief in Him. To have faith in God is to trust Him, to have confidence in Him, and to be willing to act on your belief in Him. It is a principle of action and power.
The Book of Mormon prophet Alma compared faith to a seed. If you plant a seed and nourish it, if it is a good seed it will grow and eventually bear fruit (Alma 32:28-43). It is the same with faith. If you are obedient to God’s commandments, study His word, and have a desire to believe in Christ, faith will grow inside of you.
Faith is (at it's smallest form) a desire to believe something is real when you haven't seen it with your own eyes. At it's strongest, it's the knowledge that what you believe is true.
Christ has said if you have faith the size of a tiny seed, that's enough to move mountains if you needed to.
Have faith, for with that, all things are possible. Without it, nothing is possible.
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Faith is a huge topic, rarely fully understood even by people who talk about it a lot. In the Mormon conception, it's a step of confidence between mere belief and full knowledge. It's perhaps best described by contrast with these two extremes on the continuum on which they all lie. First, faith is not that passive thing we call belief because it's a principle of action. So for someone to have faith, they have to be motivated to put a belief into practice, not merely be content with keeping it in their mind. For example, we believe that Christ is the Savior, but because we have faith we ACT as if this were true, and follow His example as best we can. In fact, "acting as if..." is a fairly good phrase to define faith. On the other hand, faith is not "perfect knowledge" either. There is enough of an element of uncertainty about the thing we have faith in, that it takes an effort of conscious decision-making to test our faith's hypothesis. If we had a full knowledge of a thing, that whole test, and the faith to find out if it's true, wouldn't be necessary. Atheists will argue that faith is mere belief (and baseless, at that), but what I have described for faith here leads to a more "scientific" approach that Atheists would like to admit is operable in the minds of the faithful. The proper response to a scriptural assertion, then, becomes not blind obedience, but rather careful thought, hypothesis forming, and testing. As tests come back proven or unproven, faith will grow in the right direction until it approaches "perfect knowledge".
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Faith is taking action because of a hope in something. Often the Savior asks of us to do certain things or live in certain ways. When we see a stranger in distress, we stop and help them as Jesus commanded us to in the Good Samaritan Luke 10:25. The act of helping is the evidence of our Faith in Christ. We are asked to tithe. Tithing is evidence of our faith. We tithe in hopes of the promises in Malachi 3:10 that the floodgates of Heaven are open to us.
Faith is when we put our beliefs and hope into action.
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It's another word for commitment. When assessing one's own faithfulness, it may be easier to ask, "How committed are you?"
Commitment
Elder F. Burton Howard of the Seventy
http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=a4237cf34f40c010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD
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Faith in my life is knowing the Lord has a hand in ALL things in my life, and knowing that as my military spouse is far away we will once again be together as a family.
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In the bible we learn that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Which means faith is having assurance of things you want or need and proof that it will happen if all prerequisites are met. for example, we go to work everyday hoping that we will receive a paycheck cause we have proof that it has happened in the past. We plant gardens in the hope that it will produce fruits and vegetables, but we have to water it and preform the other tasks associated with gardening. We do this because we have either seen, heard about, or we have gardened for ourselves and know that plants will grow if conditions are right. Faith must be centered in Jesus Christ and on correct principles found in the scriptures and through revelation. We must gain assurance and evidence about the task that will be attempted, to motivate us to action. The combination of believing, evidence, action, the will of the Lord, and Christ's help, we can accomplish righteous desires.
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Faith is a beautiful combination of obedience and hope. It is spiritual knowledge that can grow within us as we feed it by obeying God and recognizing His blessings in our lives. We initiate our personal faith by hoping that the beautiful Gospel is true or that God loves us, or that He lives. It grows by each step we take in following God's plan. Although very real, like love, it is unseen by physical eyes, and uncomprehensible to those who do not have it. To develop your faith, begin by making a habit of daily prayer and scripture study. Incorporate Christ-like attributes of patience, service, and honesty into your character. Rid yourself of all un-cleanness, as defined by the Ten Commandments, and Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. Your faith will grow, and you will feel God's love for you.
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This is an often misunderstood word in today's world. Faith is a verb, an action word. We believe in that which we don't see but we hope for. If we hope for something, we will act in order to get it. If we have faith in Christ and believe he is the Son of God, then we know that his teachings are directly from our Heavenly Father. God commanded all that they should be repent and be baptized. He commanded all that they should love one another. If we believe it, then do it.
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Faith is what gives me hope for a better tomorrow. Faith gives me the assurance that Jesus Christ really is my Savior. Faith is what enables me to see someone as they may become, rather than who they are right now. Faith is what gives me confidence that my children have a chance to see a healthy, happy future despite all the problems that occur because of other people's choices, bad luck, and innocent mistakes. Faith keeps me happy and sane.
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It's the first step in obtaining knowledge. First we have faith, then we act on that faith, then through our experience we come to know.
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