Musings by Jay

In my morning ponderings, faith has been floating across my mind. You may or may not know, but the fire season has been particularly bad in the mountain west this year. Many homes have been destroyed; and while Provo has not been in any danger, it is rather unsettling to see a column of smoke coming from a burning mountain, or to see the red glow of the fires lighting up the sky.
Fires can be scary, but they are also healthy for the environment. Wild fires clean out the dead material and leave a path for new growth and life. After the forest is purged, many plants have a chance to grow; some plants require such extreme temperatures to even reproduce. When homes are built too close to a fire zone bad things can happen.
In sacrament meeting a letter was read from the 1st Presidency asking us to pray for those who have been displaced, for the firefighters and for rain. Today it is raining; raining hard. I cannot help but feel that this is the result of a culmination of prayers and faith. The power of the voices uniting is great and is the same as when Alma and his people prayed for deliverance; it is the same power that brought the Israelites out of captivity.
So what is faith...it is merely the power that if I want something enough then I can make it happen? No, it isn't. Faith is an abiding trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is the Son of God and the Saviour and Redeemer of the world. We rely on his grace and mercy to repent of our sins and trust that we will be able to return to live with the Father. We know he will keep his promises. So then how does faith cause the heavens to pour out rain?
Our God is a God of miracles. He wishes to bless us; He wants to see us saved. As we faithfully (think of the meaning of this word and how it applies to faith) do our best to follow the Saviour, our Father blesses our lives; He gives us rain. Nothing I did qualified me for the rain; nothing that the people whose homes burned down did anything that caused their homes to burn. Fires will always burn, remember they are healthy (to an extent), but as we have faith in Jesus Christ, the rain will come.
The rain came because our Father in Heaven loves us. His love is unrestrained by petty issues such as hurt, betrayal, pride, jealousy, and personality flaws on our part. When we asked him for a blessing He lovingly bestowed it upon us. Sometimes blessings are not always immediate, or come in the way that we desire but we receive them. It is not a reflection on our faith what the outcome is.
As Peter walked out to the Saviour amidst the storm, the full fury of the waves and wind battered and blinded him (or a fire was raging against him). He began to fear and cried out "Lord, save me". Putting this in context, if Peter were right next to the boat, or right next to the Saviour, would he have feared? My heart tells me no. He must have been far enough away to truly fear (plus he was probably a good swimmer as well so that wasn't an option either). Peter knew that he was doomed, but then immediately the Saviour was beside him and lifted him out of the water saying "O thou of little faith, wherefore dids't thou doubt?" Peter had feared that he was too far from the Saviour to be saved; but Christ was there rebuking Peter's fear by saying (essentially) 'Of course I was going to save you.'
This is faith. In the midst of our fires and storms, our Saviour will be there to lift us and save us. Our Father will send us blessings to keep our faith and trust strong. I love you and miss you.