As I was preparing to make the decision of whether or not to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints one of the missionaries that was teaching me made an analogy that to this day I am not able to forget. I was struggling with many questions and doubts and I wasn't sure if I would have all of the answers by the time my baptismal date arrived. He compared that to jumping from one cliff unto another in the dark. He said that God's promise is that there will be another cliff for us to land on. All God asks is that we take the jump.
I made that jump on November 8, 2009 when I descended into the waters of baptism and was raised up into a new life in Christ and his restored gospel. What a great blessing it was for me to see God's hand in my life as I joined the Church and things fell into place for me. The doubts and questions I had were answered one by one or became irrelevant the longer I was in the Church.
I had to take another jump into the dark when I decided to serve a mission. I had somewhat of an idea what I was getting myself into. However, I still had to trust God completely as I did something that transformed me into the person God wanted me to become. I took that leap of faith and it has been to this day one of the most life changing experiences I have had in my life. I am grateful that I took that step forward and that I was able to see Heavenly Father's children come unto Him.
In this life Father in Heaven will continually ask us to take these leaps of faith. We are confronted with these tests of faith in every aspect of our lives. Now that I am back home I have to continually rely on the Spirit to know what the next step that I have to take is that is also aligned with God's will for my life. God has promised not to leave us alone and to guide us.
In 2 Nephi 32:5 we read, For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do.
Sometimes Heavenly Father will take us right up to the point where we need to make a decision. He imprints in our minds a question, or situation but He leaves the ultimate choice to us. We have many choices to make in our lives, for example, what will I study in school? What job should I take? Should I be in this relationship? God places us in those situations but leaves the ultimate decision to us for that is where the real spiritual growth lies.
He does that so that we can learn and most importantly show our faith and trust in Him. I have learned so much as I have made choices that draw me closer to Him. The path to Him has never been easy. It has been difficult, it has been painful but ultimately it brings me total satisfaction and happiness knowing that I have made the choice that God wanted me to make.
The year 2014 promises to be another year full of tests of faith and choices to be made. I look forward to doing my best to follow my Father in Heaven and showing Him my faith and trust in Him. I've decided to move to Utah to see what he has in store for me there. It's a small leap of faith that I have to make but I know because of the experiences that I have had so far that things will work out for good.
God has pulled through for me ever since I decided to join the Church, serve a full time mission and the many others situations that he places me in daily. I close with this scripture from the New Testament found in Romans 8:28, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
