Faith to Forgo Sin

In my early twenties, I had a simple experience that helped shape the future of my spiritual life.

II was sitting in church all by myself, daydreaming probably of non-church things, as 20-year-olds do. Then the sacrament portion of the meeting began. I had been taught to take this time to think of Christ, reflect on his life and what he has done for us, and renew my commitment to follow and serve him.

As I sat, waiting for the bread and water to come my way, I decided I had better focus. I began a silent prayer and started reflecting about Christ and how I could be more like him. I began to ask Heavenly Father for forgiveness for my sins, and I started going down the list, listing them off individually.

I was in the middle of this silent prayer when it occurred to me that I had one particular sin scheduled for 6:30 that very evening. It was on the calendar, I had made all the arrangements, and on top of all that, it was my favorite sin. So, there I sat, contemplating my predicament. I was not feeling particularly spiritual that day mind you, so I was very torn inside. I knew I needed to repent and be better, but I also really wanted my sin, and the bread was coming. What should I do?

I remember exactly what went through my head at that moment. I asked myself; do I have faith in Christ? I answered in my head, “Definitely, yes!” I had seen too much in my life not to believe, even though I was not feeling spiritual right at that moment. I remember thinking that if I really had faith in Christ, then I must also believe that the blessings for giving up my sin would far outweigh the misplaced pleasure I got from the sin itself (Hebews 11:6).

I swallowed hard, and maybe hesitated a little, then took a deep breath and committed to God that I would give up that sin. It was not easy. After the church service, I stood up and right away began changing my plans. I steered completely clear of that sin and sent my life down a path that would help to keep me on track permanently.

Immediately after changing my plans, the spirit entered my life more fully than it ever had before. Honestly, I was not expecting it. My heart was overflowing with the spirit, and I felt Heavenly Father’s love very strongly, I felt peace, comfort, light, and personal revelation. I was so unbelievably happy that I wanted to find every sin and give it up.

I learned and received so much from this experience. It was like God was waiting for me to choose to have faith or use my faith so that he could show his hand in my life. Through this experience, I learned that faith in Christ was a choice, it wasn’t something that was thrust upon me or handed to me by an angel. I decided to act in faith and learned that faith is strengthened by using it. At that time in my life, I got really excited about the topic of faith and wanted to tell everyone who would listen. Sometimes we are waiting for God to do all the work, inspire us, call us, and show us signs, but my message is that we also have a choice.

We often skip over faith as a basic and maybe boring gospel principle (I did), but when you learn how to exercise faith, even a small amount, you can learn how powerful it can be. When you read the New Testament, Christ talks about faith all the time. It is full of accounts where he talks about the faith of the people being the determining factor in them being blessed or seeing miracles. This never stood out to me before my experience with faith.

There is power when it comes to faith in Christ. The woman with an issue of blood used her faith in Christ to be healed (Mathew 9: 22). Christ didn’t tell her to do it, or how to do it, or even tell her it was allowed, but her faith was not misplaced, and she was healed.

Choose to do the right thing, because of your love of God, and as you choose the right, your faith will grow. You will feel God’s love more fully in your life. If you don’t use your faith, it can grow cold. We will go through periods in our lives when our faith is strong, and times when we begin to question and have doubts. I once heard that faith has a short shelf life, and that has stuck with me and seems to be true.

I know Heavenly Father is waiting to bless us with more, more peace, more knowledge, more happiness and joy, more of the righteous desires of our hearts, and the place to start along this path is having and exercising faith in Jesus Christ. This could be as easy as saying a silent prayer.

J.D. Hatley is a mediocre father, and subpar husband to his beautiful wife Caitlin. He likes a lot of things, but some things he really doesn't like. He grew up in Glennallen, so that should explain some more things. He is a member of the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.