Access to the Power of Jesus Christ

One of the themes of President Nelson’s talk in the most recent general conference, Overcome the World and Find Rest, is that through our covenants we gain power from Jesus Christ. He taught, “Each person who makes covenants in baptismal fonts and in temples—and keeps them—has increased access to the power of Jesus Christ.” He continued, “The reward for keeping covenants with God is heavenly power—power that strengthens us to withstand our trials, temptations, and heartaches better. This power eases our way. Those who live the higher laws of Jesus Christ have access to His higher power. Thus, covenant keepers are entitled to a special kind of rest that comes to them through their covenantal relationship with God.” Thus the fact that we keep our covenants with the Savior does not mean life is easier; it means that we become more empowered to overcomes its challenges and find rest amidst the turmoil around us. As we exercise faith and live according to our covenants, He will give us the strength to do all things that we need to: “We cultivate faith in Jesus Christ by repenting daily and keeping covenants that endow us with power. We stay on the covenant path and are blessed with spiritual strength, personal revelation, increasing faith, and the ministering of angels. Living the doctrine of Christ can produce the most powerful virtuous cycle, creating spiritual momentum in our lives.” He emphasized again, “However, when you yoke yourself to Jesus Christ and do the spiritual work required to overcome the world, He, and He alone, does have the power to lift you above the pull of this world.” As disciples of the Savior we don’t have to face the difficulties of life on our own or through only our own strength; we can trust that He will give us the ability to overcome all the temptations and trials of the world. President Nelson explained, “Expect opposition, because the adversary does not want you to discover the power of Jesus Christ. But yoking yourself with the Savior means you have access to His strength and redeeming power.” Again and again in this talk he testified that we will find strength and power as we bind ourselves to Jesus Christ and hold fast to our covenants with Him.

                This message is consistent with the youth theme for 2023 from Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” This has always been one of my favorite scriptures—He will give us power to do all things that we need to in this life if we yoke ourselves to Him and keep our covenants with Him. Living the gospel of Jesus Christ is now about making life easy for us; rather, it is about giving us strength in Him to do the hard things that are required of us. One of our family mottos is this: “We can do hard things.” When one of my children complains to me that something we are asking of them is hard, I usually respond, “That’s perfect, because you can do hard things!” Of course what we mean is that we can do things that are difficult because of the strength that Jesus Christ gives us. And if we want to build our faith, we must be willing to step out and do things that seem daunting or even impossible. We cannot gain strength from Jesus Christ if we do not exercise our spiritual capacities, and that only happens as we accept to do things that take us out of our comfort zone. I can think of times in my life when I did not do that, and inevitably I regretted later the lost opportunities to grow my faith in the Savior. One of these was when as a teenager I went to EFY with my friends. There was a talent show at the end of the week, and several of my friends urged me to play a song on the piano which I believe was on the album that year. They had heard me play it many times previously, and over and over they pushed me to do it but in what I thought was humility I refused. But I don’t think it was really humility that stopped me but a lack of faith—I didn’t feel ready and thought I would make mistakes—and looking back I regret that now. When given opportunities to share our talents and do hard things that will bless others, we should always take them and exercise our faith in Jesus Christ. President Nelson left us with this blessing at the end of his message: “I bless you to increase your faith in Jesus Christ and learn better how to draw upon His power.”