Faith

Alma 32:21 is today's scripture mastery.

 21 And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.

Here in life, we are often asked to believe in things that we may not yet have proof of.  We must have faith in things that we can not see.  Take the fourth article of faith as an example:

 4 We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. 

The very first thing that we must do in the gospel is to have faith.  And not just any faith--it must be faith in Jesus Christ.  The Bible Dictionary has a great definition for faith.  It starts by saying this:

Faith is to hope for things which are not seen, but which are true (Heb. 11:1; Alma 32:21), and must be centered in Jesus Christ in order to produce salvation.

How do we gain the required faith?  Alma taught us much about faith.  He taught us how we can gain faith.  According to Alma, the first step is to have a desire to believe.   Alma teaches much better than I can what we must do next.  In verses 26-43, he teaches us how we can have our faith go from a mere desire, all the way to having a "perfect knowledge."  Those verses I referenced are a little too long to quote here, but I encourage you to click on the link, and read Alma's words yourself.  It is probably one of the best sermons on faith that you will ever read/hear.