Ether 12

Ether 12:12
For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith.

This makes me wonder whether or not God is unable to perform miracles unless we have faith because he doesn't have power to perform miracles without our faith, or is it one of those situations where God has said that he will not perform miracles unless we first have faith and he cannot lie, so he is bound by his word. I imagine it is probably the second one.

Faith is an interesting subject, as are most abstract ideas. It's difficult to grasp what exactly faith is and what it means. We know it's principle of action, that true faith prompts us to take action. I understand faith to be confidence in someone or something, specifically something that has not occurred, that can not be confirmed or proven, or that has an unknown outcome. My favorite scripture on faith is in Hebrews 11.

Hebrews 11:13

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

For me this means that when we have true faith in the gospel and in the savior then we are more attached to the promises of the next life than we are to the things of this world. We are convinced of our own divinity and we see ourselves as out of place in a carnal world. To me that's the real question, do we have enough confidence in God and his covenants and our own eternal nature, that we do not put temporal things as our priority, that we don't set our hearts on the things of this world, that we lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven?

Ether 12:26 and 27

...my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness; And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness, I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

I had this thought a while ago while discussing this chapter in a Sunday school class and I wondered why I had never thought of it before. We talk a lot about Ether 12:27 but I think we overlook verse 26. In these verses we learn two things that God's grace can help us do. We all know that God's grace is sufficient for those who are humble and have faith that it can help them overcome their weaknesses, but we also learn that God's grace will help the meek to not take advantage of others weaknesses.

What does it mean to take advantage? At first, I thought it meant that we don't exploit others because of their weaknesses, but how could the gentiles possibly exploit Moroni for his weakness in writing? So, I think maybe it means that we put ourselves above another, that we discredit them or ignore or refuse to acknowledge their legitimacy, because of something they lack, because of their weakness. This can sound like a difficult thing to do, but God's grace is sufficient for us, that if we desire and have faith we will learn to take no advantage of other's weaknesses.

I also think that maybe that's what it means to be meek, that we don't take advantage of others weaknesses. And maybe what it means to be humble is that we are willing to recognize our own weaknesses. I can't help but think how many marriages cold be strengthened, or even saved if people could accept and work on their own weaknesses and not take advantage of their spouse's weaknesses.