In this address, it was evident that a person's faith is dependent on a lifetime of choices that have been made. He spoke of much more than simply surviving spiritually, but how to flourish in our faith of Jesus Christ, His Atonement and His promises. This paper will navigate briefly the articles "Lord, I Believe" and "Grounded, Rooted, Established, and Settled". It will strengthen the main point that "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23) from the two differing perspectives and establish my position that yielding our hearts to God must be prior to acquiring belief or faith.
"Lord, I Believe".
Elder Holland begins with a well-known story from Mark Chapter Nine which speaks to the heart of every person who has honestly sought faith. The father in the story has a son who from childhood has gnashed his teeth, foamed at the mouth and has little to no control over his physical body. The father is beseeching the Lord to heal his son from this affliction that has overtaken their family's life. Christ, who is always the teacher, explains to this father that if he believes, there is no limit to the miracles that can take place. The father immediately says through his tears, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief" (Mark 9:24). The honest admission of the father's somewhat "limited" (Holland, 2013) belief is the setting that Elder Holland chooses in order to build each individual's faith. The power behind this choice of narration is striking. In my own life, I feel that I have been in the same situation as this father, simply with a different backdrop of circumstances. It is one of the most frustrating things to see a dissonance between what I know to be true and the fear I feel when I do not know the end from the beginning. Elder Holland, reiterates the words of the Lord that "all things are possible to him that believeth.