Blessings..... Time

Blessings. Time.

On my last post on blessings and piggy banks I quoted a scripture that, since it is our blog, I will repeat here:

  "And secondly, he doth require that you should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you." (Mosiah 2:24 p 149 Book of Mormon)

It's that word  "immediately" that does jump out at you. The commandment obey- blessing bestowed action.

Before I begin to talk about time and timing I want to mention just a few words about faith. What is faith? Paul gives an excellent discourse, in his letter to the Hebrews, on faith.

     "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1 KJV)

Things hoped for. Is it a universal hope that when one dies that they are going to be in a better place? Even if one is not a Christian there is a hope of a higher plane of existence or step up from the life that we have been living. This entire chapter in Hebrews is devoted to faith. Paul uses the excellent example of Noah.

     "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." (Hebrews 11:7 KJV) 

Handcart Pioneers

As Marcia and I were reading last night from the Church's General Conference and we came across a very cool (or as it is said in the Philippines-astig!) story about one of the LDS pioneers traveling across the plains in the 1856. At that time the Saints were settling in the Great Salt Lake Basin to escape persecution that followed them during the early years. Their means of transport feet, handcarts, and faith. The following is an excerpt from a conference talk given by Elder Marcus B. Nash of the Quorum of the Seventy about a woman by the name of Ann Rowley. She was a widow from England who joined the Church their and then migrated to the U.S. with her children. From Elder Nash and Sister Rowley's journal:

     A widow from England, Sister Rowley exercised her faith to answer the prophet's call to gather to Zion. She was a member of the Willie handcart company, which encountered deep snowdrifts along the trail in the fall of 1856. They had reached a point in the trek where her seven children were literally starving. She wrote: "It hurt me to see my children go hungry....Night was coming and there was no food for the evening meal. I asked God's help as I always did. I go on my knees, remembering two hard sea biscuit that....had been left over from the sea voyage. They were not large, and were so hard they couldn't be broken. Surely,that was not enough to feed 8 people, but  5 loaves and 2 fishes were not enough to feed 5,000 people either,but through a miracle,Jesus had done it. So, with God's help, nothing is impossible. I found the biscuits and put them in a dutch oven and covered them with water and asked for God's blessing. Then I put the lid on the pan and set it on the coals. When I took off the lid a little later, I found the pan filled with food. I kneeled with my family and thanked God for his goodness. That night my family had sufficient food."

In this particular situation the need for blessings was immediate. The faith of Ann Rowley was sufficient for a miracle to occur. Was she doubting? I don't believe so. Was her will in alignment with that of Heavenly Father's will? Most assuredly....

jsf