“We may not know what the future holds, but we do know who holds the future, and to be in step with him is the greatest opportunity of our existence.” – author unknown

Why doesn’t God just show himself to all those on earth.  This is a question I have heard my husband ask.  Does he really want to know or is this an excuse to not believe.  Perhaps faith like love is not a thing that we have or we don’t have.  Perhaps it is a state of being, a verb, something that we can demonstrate more at one time and not so much at another.  I agree with idea that we cannot learn things of a spiritual nature with our natural mind.  There is a spiritual side to us that I am sometimes more in tune with than other times.  I feel it more in quiet humble contemplation.  This spiritual side takes practice.  It takes faith.  In order to grow spiritually, I believe I need to ponder spiritual questions and ask in faith.  As the answers come (through spiritual channels of communication) I grow in a knowledge of this spiritual side of life, until someday, may my faith be perfected unto a perfect knowledge of the way that my creator works.

Does our Father in Heaven care about our temporal needs.  He must.  He brought us here to experience joy.  Last year through my hectic  life (as I am sure you relate) I experienced some small Faith Building Experiences in the form of a very temporal nature.  Many times throughout the year I would misplace my keys.  One day after searching for my keys and feeling desperate to arrive on time to my intended destination, I decided to make an effort to grow and test my previous childlike faith.  After what I felt was a good effort to search and being nearly out of time, I decided to tell my Heavenly Father of my need to get to where I had to go, my faith that I knew he knew where my keys were and that I knew he loved me and cared about me as I was attending to the temporal needs of myself and my family.  I then asked him to help me find my keys.  In a matter of seconds I found my keys.

I know, I know, this could have been a coincidence.  But, Heavenly Father was the only one that I spoke to about this and he was the only one that knew of my “effort to grow and test my previous childlike faith”.  I believe he was willing to answer me in a more sure way.  Not too long after this experience, I lost my keys again.  I searched, I prayed and within seconds the experience was repeated.  “Okay”, I thought, “WOW, I have a direct line to Heavenly Father and he cares about me even looking for my keys… or am I being ridiculous?”  Not too long after the second experience, I lost my keys again and YES my experience was repeated a third time.  As if to drive the experience home and through my heart to my amazement I continued to misplace my keys and the experience was repeated several more times.  I wasn’t counting, but they were in succession and enough that I had to acknowledge to him (the only one that knew) of his hand in my life and his love for me as I traversed this mortal life.

Losing my keys wasn’t something that happened this often to me.  Sure it happened from time to time.  But, never as much as during that Faith Building Experience.  Gradually, things returned to normal and I stopped losing my keys so much and I stopped having to ask for his help in that regard.

Can I hold on to that experience in times of real despair and trouble?  I will have to try to exercise faith when that time comes.  Remember, faith isn’t a thing that you get once and BAM you’ve got it.  Is this an example of spiritual growth that we can go through?  I believe so.  Will he always tell me where my keys are?  I don’t think so.  Can I still trust that he is there if that same pray or another is not answered immediately or how I want?  This is why we must continue to pray for Faith Building Experiences so that we can have more and more of them, in the way the Lord chooses to pass them out, so that we eventually grow spiritually stronger until we have a knowledge he is there in all of our trials.

He is there in our joy and in our sadness.  He loves us eternally and will not leave us. All things will work for our good if we have faith.