In Every Thought

Today I reread President Nelson’s talk from several years ago called Drawing the Power of Jesus Christ into Our Lives. In it he suggested ways that we can have the Savior’s power to help us, and one of those he described this way: “Another element in drawing the Savior’s power into our lives is to reach up to Him in faith. Such reaching requires diligent, focused effort. Do you remember the biblical story of the woman who suffered for 12 years with a debilitating problem? She exercised great faith in the Savior, exclaiming, ‘If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.’ This faithful, focused woman needed to stretch as far as she could to access His power. Her physical stretching was symbolic of her spiritual stretching.” In this story she had searched high and low in the world for relief from her illness but had found none: “[She] had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse” (Mark 5:26). She had spent all of her money and suffered physically from the treatment of many doctors, but nothing had worked. Instead her condition continued to worsen. Surely her story is a symbol of the fact that we should turn first to the Savior for help instead of putting all our trust in the world. It is the Savior who has the power to help and bless and heal us. President Nelson commented in a note to his talk: “When the faithful woman touched the Savior’s clothing, He instantly responded, ‘I perceive that virtue [from the Greek dunamis, meaning ‘power’] is gone out of me’ (Luke 8:46; emphasis added).” The woman received power from the Savior as she reached out to Him, a task all the more difficult given the fact that this was a public place and she was known to be unclean. She could have easily been ridiculed and cast out by the people because of her condition, but she garnered her faith to focus on the Savior instead of them, and He healed her.

               Perhaps that is the key for us to receive the Savior’s help. We must get to the point where we don’t care what the world thinks or how we will be perceived by others; rather, our primary focus must be on Him. Our greatest desire must be towards pleasing Him and receiving His help instead of being well perceived by those around us. President Nelson continued with his commentary: “Many of us have cried out from the depths of our hearts a variation of this woman’s words: ‘If I could spiritually stretch enough to draw the Savior’s power into my life, I would know how to handle my heart-wrenching situation. I would know what to do. And I would have the power to do it.’ When you reach up for the Lord’s power in your life with the same intensity that a drowning person has when grasping and gasping for air, power from Jesus Christ will be yours. When the Savior knows you truly want to reach up to Him—when He can feel that the greatest desire of your heart is to draw His power into your life—you will be led by the Holy Ghost to know exactly what you should do.” To access the Savior’s power we must reach out to Him in our hearts with an earnestness and devotion that exceeds our desire for anything else. I love his imagery of someone gasping for air—surely someone in that state has no other thought in the moment other than to breathe. We too must be able to focus all our energy on Him and receiving His power to help us in our lives. President Nelson also commented, “There is nothing easy or automatic about becoming such powerful disciples. Our focus must be riveted on the Savior and His gospel. It is mentally rigorous to strive to look unto Him in every thought. But when we do, our doubts and fears flee.” This was a reference to the Savior’s words in Doctrine and Covenants 6:36: “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.” As we seek His power in our lives that is what we must do, continually turn to Him in all our thoughts and “look upon the Son of God with faith, having a contrite spirit” (Helaman 8:15). As we strive to focus ourselves continually on Him each day as we face each of our challenges, the prophet’s promise is this: “Power from Jesus Christ will be yours.”