Skip to main content
Campus Community

Faith as a Measure of Devotion

Our faith will never be enough to get us all the way to the Savior, but, if we can get close enough to reach out our hand and ask for help, we are close enough for Him to reach out and meet us, explained Elder Keith R. Edwards of the Second Quorum of the Seventy, during his devotional at BYU-Hawaii on Sept. 23. He built his address around the idea that “faith is not built on minimums” and encouraged all in attendance to increase their faith by doing more than is expected of them.

“Maybe if our strength is only strong enough to get us close enough to the Savior that he can take our hand and save us, that we will be enough,” Elder Edwards taught, after sharing the story of Peter from the New Testament, and his failing faith while walking on water. Elder Edwards told the story, however, in from a different point of view than most people are used to hearing.

After quoting Matthew 14:22-31, he said, “That story is often quoted to suggest that Peter had faltering faith. But I note, as I read in Matthew, that Jesus ‘constrained’ all of his disciples to get into a ship. That suggests the presence of at least 12 people on the boat, but only one, only Peter, was willing to ‘get off the boat’... Similarly, although his faith may have failed, it was at least strong enough to carry him close enough to the Savior that, when he cried out for help, the Savior could stretch forth his hand and save Peter.”

Elder Edwards made a similar conclusion from the story of Nephi while retrieving the Plates of Brass from Laban. “Nephi had been rejected, robbed and beaten. A less faithful one might have asked ‘When is the Lord going to prepare the way?’ But Nephi’s faith was such that he believed that each step was part of the preparation and that all he had to do was keep going.”

After suggesting that many of us may miss the grander vision behind 1 Nephi 3:7, Elder Edwards taught, “You see, if we just quote 1 Nephi 3:7, we miss the power of experience. It sounds like all we have to do is move forward and the Lord will take care of everything. While the Lord does put things in order, faith is not simply to ‘step onto the water’ and expect the waves to calm. Faith is to keep going, even in a storm.”

A young missionary serving under Elder Edwards while he was a mission president in Zimbabwe boasted of his success as a missionary, measured by the number of baptisms in which he had participated. Elder Edwards, after recounting the experience of Abinidi – who saw no results of his labors, prophesying and preaching and was burned at the stake as a martyr – explained, he wrote back to this young missionary and asked if his success made him better than Abinidi.

“After recounting the story of Abinidi, who gave his life in preaching and prophesying to see no results and die at the stake, Elder Edwards explained that he wrote back to this young missionary and asked if his 50 baptisms made him better than Abinidi. Our success cannot always be measured by “any worldly standard,” said Elder Edwards, “such as the number of converts we have had, or miracles performed. “As Christ pointed out to his Apostles, if you are going to increase your faith, then works must exceed basic expectations. There must be endurance and staying power,” added Elder Edwards.

He closed his address with a letter from another Zimbabwean missionary, but of a different nature. The sister missionary wrote the then-President Edwards to tell him of a faith promoting experience she had after a long and unsuccessful day out in the field. She and her companion had worked hard but no achieved no success, and on the walk home she seriously questioned the need for her hard work. She had a conversation in her mind about her faith and works, and then had a final thought, which she called a “defining moment,” said Elder Edwards.

She and her companion followed the Spirit while seeking out less less-actives from the ward they were working with, but she had doubted their work due to lack of success, and she had a conversation in her head about the events of the day. Elder Edwards shared the image that came into the this sister missionary’s mind at the end of this conversation, as shared in her letter:

“Then an image came to my head of me kneeling [before] My Father in Heaven, sobbing [and] saying, ‘I love you so much – but I don’t have the ability to show that love. Whatever I give will NEVER BE ENOUGH!’ Then, I saw the Savior kneel next to me and say, ‘Father I love HER so much that whatever she can’t give, I will make up. Please accept her offering.’”

“Faith is action,” concluded Elder Edwards, “but it is also persistence. It is power to move ahead, even if it is only far enough to get close enough to God to cry out and with an extended hand say, ‘Lord, save me.’ Then, if we do that, perhaps we, like the Brother of Jared, may see the hand of God in our lives.”

-Photo by Monique Saenz

:: For a complete transcript of Elder Edward's address...

:: Watch video excerpts from Elder Edward's devotional...