An Act of Faith

by Autumn Dickson

This week, we run into a big announcement for the Saints.

Doctrine and Covenants 37:3-4

3 And again, a commandment I give unto the church, that it is expedient in me that they should assemble together at the Ohio, against the time that my servant Oliver Cowdery shall return unto them.

4 Behold, here is wisdom, and let every man choose for himself until I come. Even so. Amen.

The Lord asks His Saints, many of whom are gathered in New York, to pack up and move to Ohio.

I think it’s hard to fathom what a big deal this is. Joseph is a very young man, and he’s imperfect. Even if you believe he’s the prophet, it can be difficult to wonder whether this is truly a commandment from the Lord. In fact, John Whitmer recorded that some people believed Joseph had made it up in order to take advantage of them. Imagine packing up as much as you can, potentially not being able to sell your home, and moving to a place where you’re going to have to build a house and hopefully be able to grow food for your family (because there certainly wasn’t any welfare yet).

This was a really big deal. It was an immense test of faith. These people were being asked to dive headfirst into a body of water that they hadn’t been given many opportunities to test out. The church was so new that there had been relatively few opportunities to exercise your faith up to this point, and going to Ohio was going to take a herculean amount of faith.

Faith experiences

There are different kinds of experiences associated with faith in mortality. I want to look at the experiences of David from the Old Testament in order to differentiate between two specific directions through which we experience faith. By exploring the different ways we can choose to exercise faith, I believe that we can more consciously grow our faith.

In the Old Testament, the Israelites are facing a very scary army. Goliath steps forward as an individual on behalf of this very scary army, and he wants to battle an Israelite. Unfortunately, none of the Israelites want to challenge him. David, a teenage shepherd who came to bring lunch to his brothers, has come forward to King Saul, and he wants to go against Goliath. Saul responds to David with, “You’re really young, and this guy has been a soldier for a really long time.” This is how David responds.

1 Samuel 17:34-35

34 And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock:

35 And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.

In lay terms, David tells Saul that he’s a shepherd who protected his father’s sheep against a lion and a bear. David has fought great battles and been protected by the Lord, and he believes it would be no different in this situation.

In reality, facing the bear and facing Goliath require different approaches to faith.

A low-risk faith

In verse 34, we learn that the lion and bear came to David, and he fought them. I think it’s really key to understand that in this situation, the trouble came to David. He didn’t go out asking for it. He fell into a situation and pleaded with the Lord to save him.

Has difficulty ever come upon you and your need for the Lord was made very apparent and you pleaded for deliverance? Have you ever found yourself in a situation where all of a sudden you were paying really close attention to your prayers and the Lord? The foremost modern day equivalent that I can think of is getting some sickness like cancer.

When I describe this as a “low-risk” faith, I’m not trying to say that bears, lions, and cancers aren’t serious. What I’m trying to say is that in situations like this, it never hurts to try and reach out to a higher power. Having a deep, steady faith can bring you an immense amount of peace in a situation like this. However, there’s not a lot on the line if whatever higher power you believe in doesn’t answer. You’re not going to be any worse off than you were before.

I call this a low-risk faith. Surely you’re showing faith by turning to the Lord, but it’s not requiring much of you because you have nothing to lose in turning to Him. David didn’t ask for the lion and bear to come, but he pleaded with the Lord when they did show up.

A high-risk faith

The situation with Goliath was totally different. David could have gone home and some other Israelite would have been sent in his place to fight Goliath. Stepping up to fight a seasoned soldier of your own accord is different from being forced into a scary situation with wild animals. If Goliath had shown up at David’s doorstep spoiling for a fight with David (and David only) then showing faith and pleading for help would have been low-risk. It wouldn’t have left David worse off to look to a higher power. The level of faith it required to step forward of his own accord was far more immense. People can go their whole lives, pleading with the Lord when it’s low-risk, but never actually stepping forward in an act of higher faith that brings higher rewards.

When David stepped forward to fight Goliath, without anything compelling him to do so, his faith was speaking volumes. His faith was saying, “I know that it was the Lord who delivered me from the lion and bear and not just dumb luck or my immense skill with a slingshot. I know that the Israelites are the Lord’s people and that the Lord wants to protect them. I know that the Lord wants me to step forward to fight him, or at the very least, I know that the Lord will protect me if I choose to do so when no one else will.”

Joseph Smith taught that true faith requires a knowledge of God’s character, and I believe that teaching is so evident here.

It would have been easy for David to wonder if the Lord really wanted to protect His people or whether David was going to end up as collateral damage in a war that the Israelites were meant to lose. It would have been easy to wonder if the Lord was busy doing something else. It would have been easy to wonder if the Lord truly wanted David to do this thing or if David was doing something stupid by stepping up.

But David knew the character of the Lord, and he stepped forward in faith of his own accord.

Let’s pull it back into the situation of the Saints. The difference would be equivalent to one of the Saints losing their home and trusting the Lord to help them find something new in comparison to voluntarily leaving behind a good thing for the unknown because the prophet told you to. The potential for doubts is staggering. Is Joseph really a prophet? Did Joseph get the revelation wrong and only Joseph is supposed to go to Ohio or do they really all need to go? Does God really care about them and will He truly take care of them?

There are going to be situations in your life where darkness comes upon you and you reach out to the Lord for help. These kinds of faith-situations are really important. These kinds of situations help you build your faith as you choose to see the Lord’s hand stepping in to help. These kinds of situations also call upon you to believe that the Lord still loves you and is going to make things okay, even if it’s not in the direction that you want it to be.

On the flip side, there will be situations where the Lord is going to ask you to step into the dark. Maybe others have had different experiences, but for me, these can feel scarier. Even when I truly believe that the Lord loves me, I wonder whether I’m hearing Him correctly or whether I’m just putting myself into a bad situation for funsies.

When I chose to get married, I wasn’t sure the path was going to bring me happiness and I felt like the Lord was rather quiet on the subject when I wanted undeniable confirmation that I was making a choice that would bring me joy. When we moved to Virginia, it was easy to wonder whether we had left something really good behind in favor of living in a hotel for three months with three kids. Had the Lord asked us to do it or was it all made up in my mind? When I chose to do this blog because I thought He was asking me to, it was easy to wonder whether this is really what He wanted or whether I was simply investing immense amounts of time into something that the Lord hadn’t actually asked for.

We have different lessons to learn here on earth that call for different kinds of faith. Sometimes the Lord quietly presents us with opportunities to step forward into the dark, trusting that He will be there, and when we choose to jump, the rewards are immense. David defeated a mighty soldier, saved the Israelites, and set himself up to become king. That’s no small thing.

They say that higher risks can reap greater rewards. There have been plenty of times in my life where I felt like I was taking great risks in trusting the Lord, but I have learned that with the Lord, it’s not really a high risk. I’ve learned that even when I’m mistaken in my understanding of what He wants me to do, He’s not going to respond with, “Whoops. That sucks for you. That wasn’t what I was asking.” He loves me. I may find myself in greater difficulty, but I will never truly lose if I’m actively trying to follow Him. He knows my heart. He knows I want to do what He wants me to do, and that’s enough for Him.

Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.

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