ye shall not fear?

This morning at church, Nathan got to give a scripture in primary for the 1st time. We practiced it alot the day before, and I felt like he was ready. But when he got up there in front of everyone, he just wanted to hide behind me. I don't blame him. It can be scary in front of a group. I got my own taste of that today as well. I recently got a new "calling" or position in the church. I'm a counselor in the Relief Society, the women's organization of the church. I am mainly in charge of the instructors who teach the lessons on Sunday in Relief Society (the 3rd hour), just helping them in any way. Well, when they're not there, that means I get to teach.

We have not been meeting in our own building. We've been meeting in the community center until our new building is finished. Today we had special circumstances- when we got to church, we found out we couldn't meet as a congregation the 1st hour (sacrament meeting), like we usually do, so we went to the 2nd and 3rd hours. Except the normal 3rd hour was the 2nd hour today. Anyway, the instructor showed up only to teach during the 3rd hour, so she missed the time she was supposed to teach. That meant that I got to teach the lesson, unprepared.

I always think of the scripture that says, "...if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear." Well, I wasn't prepared, so I was afraid! I felt a little bit like Nathan, except I didn't have anyone to hide behind. But I took comfort in that I did at least read the lesson yesterday, and the lesson was on "Jesus Christ, the Divine Redeemer of the World." I can teach and testify about Jesus Christ. (At least it wasn't on the law of chastity- Alex got to give an impromtu lesson on that a few weeks ago in Sunday School...) Anyway, it went well, because I really just had to facilitate the discussion. This is Relief Society - women love to talk.

I ended up using the scripture that Nathan shared today in part of my lesson. The primary's theme for the month is "The scriptures teach me about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and how to return to them." So I picked a simple scripture in John 20:31. It says, "But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name."

It's interesting the lead-up to that scripture. The Risen Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene and his disciples. Except Thomas hadn't seen the Risen Lord yet. He said he would not believe until he saw the prints of the nails. (You're familiar with the term "doubting Thomas"). Soon, Thomas was also able to see Jesus Christ for himself. The Lord tells him, "...be not faithless, but believing....because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." And then we have the scripture in verse 31 that Nathan shared.

So would it make a difference if you actually saw the Savior? You bet it would. But we don't have to see him to believe, to have that witness. We can read about Jesus in the scriptures. We can read about and hear the testimony of prophets and those who have actually seen the Savior. This is where faith comes in, which is so lacking in the world today (see my previous post). Many say, as Thomas did, I will not believe until I see. But that's where we go wrong. We are to walk by faith, not by sight. We receive no witness until after the trial of our faith.