Words of Faith

Tomorrow I am teaching a seminar in Davis County about my research on "Faith Works By Words." I'm excited because the more I study this subject the more amazed I am at the significance of the words we think and speak. Words matter! Words make all the difference in our lives. But their significance often escapes us because using words to exercise faith isn't just a matter of bearing testimony or expressing religious thoughts. It is the daily, hourly, minute by minute use of words that is our faith.

For example: I have a friend who is about ten years older than I am who has never married. Many in her circumstances think thoughts (words) such as "Why has God denied me this blessing?" or "This isn't fair that I don't get a spouse when it is a commandment!" But instead my friend told me she wakes up every morning and exclaims, "Wow, I'm one day closer to the time when I'll find my eternal companion!"

Do you see how the first statements are a denial of faith and the second is a declaration of faith? Faith works by words and so we need to examine the words we use at all times and make sure they are words of faith.

Here are just a few of the scriptures that explain the importance of words.

From the Savior: "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.  For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned" (Matthew 12:36-37)

From King Benjamin: "But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not.” (Mosiah 4:30)

From the Apostle Paul: "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers." (Ephesians 4:29)