Ether 12:8-9 -- On Hope and Faith and The Path to Perfection

"But because of the faith of men he has shown himself unto the world, and glorified the name of the Father, and prepared a way that thereby others might be partakers of the heavenly gift, that they might hope for those things which they have not seen.
Wherefore, ye may also have hope, and be partakers of the gift, if ye will but have faith."
Ether 12:8-9


Just before this, verse 6 explains that faith is things that are hoped for and not seen, so the first verse of this selection is explaining that faith begets faith in a way... becuase we have faith in him, Christ is able to enable us to partake of his gift, giving us more faith... which is really cool, and why I think that God talks about the power of even tiny faith... because, like a mustard seed or really any seed, once planted, it grows and becomes stronger. The more faith we have in God, the more he can do to help and strengthen our faith. The more we hope in things that we can't see and watch them happen anyway, the more we trust that things like that can and will continue to happen. The more experience we have with the Spirit, the more that we will recognize and trust it in the future.

So many things are like that in life and with God. Line upon line... God doesn't expect us to be perfect all at once, but as we make an effort, he multiplies that effort as though we were wearing power armor, making us stronger than we could reasonably be all on our own. And so our little efforts, over time, can become something amazing, and we as amazingly weak and sinful beings can actually dream of becoming perfect one day, because we have that seed of Godhood in us and every step we take is magnified and reinforced and instead of wearying ourselves on the journey of the gospel, we are energized even more, strengthened to take another step which would wouldn't have been able to make before, but faith begets faith and progress enables further progress. Today, let's remember that no matter how it seems to us today, perfection is possible. The challenge is just continuing to try, and moving in the right direction, and making sure God is our top priority. As we work to get on the same page with God and keep moving forward, he works to help us learn and become ready for that next step, and each step after that along the path he has prepared for us.