Ministering . . . how we learn faith, hope and charity

Last week in our weekly Pathway Gathering, we spent the first few minutes sharing some of what we had learned from our Christlike Attributes project.  One in the group mentioned that she had chosen to focus on the attribute of hope.  As she had studied and pondered on it, she realized that you could not have hope without faith and that you could not have either of those without charity. 

This had me pondering a bit the following day.  The day after that was the beginning of General Conference and so my thoughts became focused there.  As I watch, I always try to look for patterns or themes I am noticing so that I can pay particular attention as I study over the next six months.  The pattern I saw emerging was ministering.  I wondered if it was because so much of my focus in my callings the last few years has been on learning and teaching about ministering. 

When I was put in the Relief Society presidency a few years ago, I prayed to know what it was that the Lord wanted me to focus on as I served.  Overwhelmingly, I felt the impression that I was to help the sisters to feel the love the Savior had for them through their interactions with me.  The task seemed a bit daunting; however, I knew that the Lord would show me how.  As I pondered on how to accomplish this, I had the following come to mind: 

1.  I needed to prepare myself by becoming a better disciple. 

2.  I needed to pray for the ability to see people as the Savior does.

3.  I needed to pray to recognize who needed my help that day and then act on any prompting I received, even if I did not know exactly what I was to do

This became the focus of my studies, my thoughts and my prayers.  It is hard to describe, but as the year progressed, I realized that I was seeing people from a different perspective and had a love in my heart that was different from what I had felt before. 

Last year as I was seeking to know how the Lord wanted me to serve in my calling, I had the strong impression that I needed to begin teaching others how to minister.  Once again, I was unsure how I was to do this, but trusted that the Lord would show me.  I began by studying everything I could find on ministering.  As a presidency, we felt prompted that we should lead a discussion on ministering.  Over the year I was privileged to be given many opportunities to minister to many ones.  I was prompted in ways that I could invite others to minister and shown how I could use these as opportunities to teach a one how to minister.  What a wonderful year it was focusing on ministering as the Savior did. 

This year started with a surprise change in calling.  A bit overwhelmed, I prayed to know where the Lord wanted me to focus my efforts in my new responsibilities.  Within a week a being called, we began our rigorous ward conference season.  As we as a presidency prayed to know what the Lord would have us teach, we felt prompted to focus on ministering.  Logically this seemed like a good fit with the recent changes in the visiting teaching program as well as one of our stake goals this year being to “learn how to minister to others, and practice doing so.” 

One of my counselors, in her ward conference lesson, always makes the comment about how, once we decided on ministering as our topic for ward conference, she has begun to see ministering everywhere in her life.  I wondered if this was why I was noticing the pattern emerge in conference.  And then the last session of conference came and it was confirmed to me that I was seeing this pattern of ministering because the Lord wanted me to see it. 

I was still trying to make sense of all these pieces the following morning when I began my daily scripture study in Moroni 7.  Suddenly the pieces began to slide into place.  

Going back to the comment made last week in our Gathering, this quote from Elder Ballard confirmed the thoughts and feelings I had about faith, hope and charity.

"Hope develops faith.  Likewise, true faith gives birth to hope. … The principles of faith and hope working together must be accompanied by charity. … Working together, these three eternal principles will help give us the broad eternal perspective we need to face life's toughest challenges. … Real faith fosters hope for the future; it allows us to look beyond ourselves and our present cards.  Fortified by hope, we are moved to demonstrate the pure love of Christ through daily acts of obedience and Christian service."   (M. Russell Ballard, Ensign, Nov. 1992)

You cannot have faith without hope. So in other words, hope encircles faith.  As your faith grows, hope enlarges.  Mormon teaches us that charity encircles both of those (see Moroni 7:44). 

Leading up to teaching us about the “triad of faith, hope and charity” (see Faust, Ensign, Nov. 1994), Mormon first teaches us about the ministering of angels.  There was that word ministering woven throughout this chapter.  I had a couple of quotes come back to me as I was pondering on this. 

"[W]hen we speak of those who are instruments in the hand of God, we are reminded that not all angels are from the other side of the veil.  Some of them we walk with and talk with - here, now, and every day.  Some of them reside in our own neighborhoods.  Some of them gave birth to us, and in my case, one of them consented to marry me.  Indeed, heaven never seems closer that when we see the love of God manifested in the kindness and devotion of people so good and so pure that angelic is the only word that comes to mind."  (Jeffrey R. Holland, Ensign, Nov. 2008)

“Often our members are “angels” to neighbors in need.  Home teachers and visiting teachers, as ordinary people, frequently render service that seems angelic to grateful recipients.  … Do we believe in angels?  Yes!  We believe in angels – heavenly messengers – seen and unseen; and earthly angels who know whom to help and how to help.  Gospel messengers, or angels, can include ordinary people like you and me.”  (Russell M. Nelson, Accomplishing the Impossible)

Ministering is the very thing that will increase our capacity of faith, hope and charity.  Moroni begins this chapter telling us that he is speaking to the “peaceable followers of Christ” who have obtained “sufficient hope.”  We develop “sufficient hope” by “laying hold upon every good thing.” 

Several years ago I attended a training in which our stake president taught us the formula for conversion: (faith + hope + works (motivation)) x grace = conversion.  Mormon teaches that our motivation in our works must be pure and with real intent (see Moroni 7:5-9). So how do we know if our motivation has real intent?  I once had a bishop who taught us to assume that every thought we had that would lift or help another was a prompting from the Lord.  Mormon teaches something similar:  “… all things which are good cometh of God; … wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God” (see Moroni 7:12-13). 

When I choose to act on these promptings, the Lord has shown me how to minister.  As I have acted, the Lord, through His grace, has blessed me with charity, or the pure love of Christ.  For a short time, I am able to see and love as the Savior would if He were here.  Through this my capacity for faith and hope have been enlarged.  As faith, hope and charity have increased in my life through learning how to and practicing ministering to others, I have felt a stronger desire to do more and be more like my Savior.  I have been shown how to “lay hold upon every good thing.” 

Has life been smooth sailing since then?  No.  It has had its share of ups and downs, successes and failures, worries and challenges.  But what I have noticed is that it is charity have become the anchor that keeps me tethered to the Lord and fills me with hope and gives me faith that brings peace and joy even during hard times.  It is His pure love, charity, that never fails.  “[T]he miracle of Christ’s charity both saves us and changes us … transforming the soul, lifting it above the fallen standards to something far more noble, far more holy” (Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant, 337). 

I feel as Ammon did when he said:  “And now, I ask, what great blessings has he bestowed upon us? Can ye tell? … [T]his is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work” (Alma 26:2-3).  How grateful I am for the opportunities I have been given to learn how, to teach others how, and to practice ministering to others.  For it is through this that I am beginning to understand what it means to have charity and this has enlarged my hope and increased my faith.