Strength According to Our Faith

Since starting this blog, I have noticed how much personal guidance I receive during my scripture reading.  Not personal, as in secret, but personal as in many of my thoughts wouldn't apply to others.  It is often answers to questions I have posed regarding my life.  I have also noticed that it is much more time consuming to write a post that is (hopefully) understood by others than it is to jot a few notes in my scripture journal.  For both reasons I haven't posted anything for a while.  But, although driving kids to seminary has been inserted into my morning routine, I would like to get back on track with this blog.  I'm thinking maybe a couple of posts a week.  It is kind of nice for me to be forced to express my thoughts so that others can understand them. 

Enough about that...

In Alma 14, Alma and Amulek are in prison.  They have been roughly treated and made to watch those who believe in Christ killed.  The believers are burned along with their "sacred records."

After enduring much, Alma 14:26-28 tells us this:

"And Alma cried, saying:  How long shall we suffer these great afflictions, O Lord?  O Lord, give us strength according to our faith which is in Christ, even unto deliverance.  And they broke the cords with which they were bound...and the earth shook mightily, and the walls of the prison were rent in twain, so that they fell to the earth...and Alma and Amulek came forth out of the prison, and they were not hurt; for the Lord had granted them power, according to their faith which was in Christ..."
 

As I read this account recently, it struck me that the language is similar to that of 1 Nephi 7:17 which says:

"...O Lord, according to my faith which is in thee, wilt thou deliver me from the hands of my brethren; yea, even give me strength that I may burst these bands with which I am bound."
 

I had never noticed before how, in each of these instances, power/strength was granted according to the faith of the one asking.  And not just according to their faith, but more specifically, it was according to their faith in Christ.  This might seem a very small thing, but to me it isn't.

I have always been told to pray in faith.  That faith and doubt cannot both exist at the same time.  It made me wonder how I could get such faith in things I was unsure of.  For example, how do I pray in faith that I would get into the college I wanted?  How can I eradicate all doubt about something like that?  To me--praying in faith sounded like it required a super-sized ego, or at the very least a small departure from reality.  But the thing we are praying about is not what we are asked not to doubt. We are asked to pray with faith in Christ and our Father in Heaven.  I can do that.  I can know that they hear me, that they listen and care.  Whether I receive what I am asking for is not what is most important (although it really did seem that way when I was praying about college.)  What is most important is my relationship with my Heavenly Father and my Savior.

Finally, finally, years later another gospel question of mine has been answered.  I finally get it.  I must admit that at times I feel rather slow, but I guess what really matters is that I didn't let my failure to understand stop me from doing the best I could with the knowledge I had.