The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
A few vignettes, connected over time, have helped me better understand and cherish what the priesthood is and how its threads are woven throughout my life.
It began with faith. As a missionary serving in the lush rolling hills of upstate New York, I was reading “Lectures on Faith” when I learned a profound principle: Faith is more than just positive thinking. Rather, it is the power that holds the worlds together. Or, as President Harold B. Lee once taught, “Remember, faith is the activating force of priesthood, without which, priesthood is not effective in your lives” (“The Teachings of Harold B. Lee,” p.489).
That principle struck me and, over time, it became a foundation stone for me in relation to priesthood power. “[This] principle of power, which existed in the bosom of God, by which the worlds were framed, was faith. All things … exist by reason of faith, as it existedin Him” (First Theological Lecture on Faith, circa January-May 1835, part 15).
Here I was as a missionary, teaching the basic principle of faith, yet I hadn’t quite grasped the significance of such a common and foundational principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Did I really understand what was available to me, my companion, those we taught, and each one of us here on earth if we just exercise our Faith?
This faith in Jesus Christ gives us direct access to His power which blesses, redeems, sanctifies, and heals us. It seems overwhelming to consider its magnitude. But simply put, it is the power of God and, as stated previously, it “exists in Him.”
Being a single adult sister in the Church, I do not have a bearer of the priesthood in my home. Yet just like faith, priesthood power also holds the worlds together. It lives in us. It is the manifestation of the love of God and God most often manifests Himself in quiet moments, between only us and Him.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
