As disciples of Christ, we strive to live His gospel and follow Him every day, not just once a week at church. Exercising faith every day is one important way we follow Him. Church leaders and inspired prophets in the scriptures frequently invite us to exercise faith, but what does that look like in our everyday lives? How do we put our trust and belief in God into action?
Recently, President Russell M. Nelson extended three invitations that we can apply daily to exercise our faith in Christ. He said, “I invite you to make the scriptures your personal Liahona, the temple your place of refuge and recalibration, and your personal prayers the way you learn where the Lord needs you to be that day.” 1
“Make the Scriptures Your Personal Liahona”
Scripture study is an important way to exercise faith. The scriptures teach us about the character of God and Christ. We can learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ and learn ways that we can become more like the Savior. Wilford Woodruff said, “Search the scriptures . . . and learn to comprehend the mind and will of God, which we can do by reading them when the light of the Holy Spirit is within us, and thus prepare yourselves for that which will come to pass in life.” 2
Like Wilford Woodruff said, the scriptures can help us prepare for what will come in our lives, and having them as a guide will help us stay on the right path. Just like the scriptures, the Liahona served as a guide to Lehi and his family as they traveled in the wilderness. In 1 Nephi 16:28, Nephi described that the spindles on the compass “did work according to the faith and diligence and heed which we did give unto them.” Likewise, our faith grows from studying the scriptures only when we diligently study them and apply what we learn from them.
The scriptures have become my personal Liahona as I study them daily. They help correct my course as I feel God’s love seeping from the pages. My faith in Jesus Christ grows and the stories in the scriptures come to life as I compare them to my experiences and do my best to live the teachings.
Make “the Temple Your Place of Refuge and Recalibration”
Focusing our lives on the temple is another practice we can adopt to exercise faith in our everyday lives. The temple teaches the truth about who we are and all that we can become, which helps us increase our trust in the Lord’s promises. In 2 Nephi 12:3, Isaiah taught, “Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” We will develop a stronger desire to follow Christ as we spend time in His house. President Nelson takes temple attendance a step further by inviting us to make it a place of “refuge and recalibration.”
When I think of places of refuge where I can reset and unwind, I often think of my home, nature, or other places where I can relax. Wherever or however we relax, the temple can also become one of these places. The ultimate rest we can experience is when we are encircled safely in the arms of the Savior in the temple.
Wilford Woodruff constantly focused his life and ministry on the temple. He said, “There is no principle on earth that I rejoice more in than in the power that we hold as Latter-day Saints to build these temples, to go into them, and to redeem our dead. It will require immortal bodies, immortal spirits, immortal revelations to enable men to comprehend the full extent of this work; they cannot comprehend it in mortality.”3 As we attend the temple, we can catch glimpses of the full magnitude of God’s amazing work.
In the April 2024 general conference, President Nelson promised many blessings that we will see as we spend more time in the temple: “Nothing will help you more to hold fast to the iron rod than worshipping in the temple as regularly as your circumstances permit. Nothing will protect you more as you encounter the world’s mists of darkness. Nothing will bolster your testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement or help you understand God’s magnificent plan more. Nothing will soothe your spirit more during times of pain. Nothing will open the heavens more. Nothing!”4
Make “Your Personal Prayers the Way You Learn Where the Lord Needs You”
President Nelson’s final invitation is to allow our prayers to be times of inspiration and revelation to know the Lord’s will. Prayer is a crucial part of exercising faith because it is our opportunity to communicate with God. Our personal prayers can become the answer to where the Lord needs us as we intentionally seek to know who needs us and how we can help. A practice that has helped me do this is having a prayer journal. As I pray, I am prepared to write down impressions or people who come to mind. Another way I pray more meaningfully is by setting goals for how I want to more closely follow the Savior. I commit to these goals and follow up with the Lord in prayer.
Knowing where the Lord needs us includes asking in faith. Elder David A. Bednar taught about this principle, saying, “Please notice the requirement to ask in faith, which I understand to mean the necessity to not only express but to do, the dual obligation to both plead and to perform, the requirement to communicate and to act.”5 Prayer not only includes speaking of our desires, gratitude, or questions, but requires that once we pray, we get up and get to work.
Wilford Woodruff shared his testimony of prayer, saying, “The inhabitants of the earth do not realize the effect and benefit of prayer. The Lord hears and answers the prayers of men, women and children. Prayer has more power, a great deal, to bring down the blessings of God, than almost any other thing.”6 Understanding the power of prayer makes me want to pray every day, multiple times a day!
Wilford Woodruff, April 1894, Salt Lake City, Utah
We can exercise faith in our daily lives in so many different ways; studying the scriptures, focusing on the temple, and praying are three of the most foundational. When we make an effort to do these things, we are following the prophet and thus following the Lord.
Kamryn Maughan is studying Family Life at Brigham Young University. She joined the Wilford Woodruff Papers and was drawn by its mission to deepen and strengthen faith through President Woodruff’s documents and history. Kamryn has a big, loving family who she recently reunited with after serving in Oklahoma as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She loves hiking, playing card games, and watching movies with her family and friends.
The Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation’s mission is to digitally preserve and publish Wilford Woodruff’s eyewitness account of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and make his records universally accessible in order to inspire all people, especially the rising generation, to study and to increase their faith in Jesus Christ. For more information, please explore wilfordwoodruffpapers.org.
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