We Will Find Him

Sister Tracy Y. Browning gave a talk titled Seeing More of Jesus Christ in Our Lives in the most recent general conference. That title is the invitation—we should seek to see the Savior in all that we do. She used the phrase as she spoke of the offerings we should bring to the Lord: “When we bring our offering to the Savior, we are being invited to see more of Jesus Christ in our lives, as we humbly submit our will to Him in recognition and understanding of His perfect submission to the will of the Father.” So, one of the ways that we can see more of the Savior and recognize Him more in our lives is to make sacrifices of our time to Him. It might be in “scripture and messages from His chosen prophets and His Spirit received through daily prayer, regular temple attendance, and the weekly ordinance of the sacrament” that we focus on Him and offer of ourselves to the Lord. I love this quote from President Nelson that she cited: “Nothing invites the Spirit more than fixing your focus on Jesus Christ. … He will lead and guide you in your personal life if you will make time for Him in your life—each and every day.” If we want to see Him more in our lives, we must make time for Him by doing those things that invite His Spirit and draw our thoughts to Him. As King Benjamin questioned, “For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?” If we want to know Him, we have to make time for Him as we serve Him and draw our thoughts to Him.

                Sister Browning also spoke about the ancient Israelites and how the law of Moses was designed to draw the covenant people to the Savior. She said, “The law, rich with symbolism pointing believers to ‘look forward to the coming’ and Atonement of Jesus Christ, was meant to help the people of Israel focus on the Savior by practicing faith in Him, His sacrifice, and His laws and commandments in their lives—it was intended to bring them to a greater understanding of their Redeemer.” As we know, many of them were so focused on the law itself that the missed Him entirely, “setting Him aside and adding to the law unauthorized practices that had no instructive symbolism pointing to the true and only source of their salvation and redemption—Jesus Christ.” In the same way, if we are not careful we can focus too much on the commandments and practices of a Latter-day Saint and forget that we should see Him in all that we do. We should seek to be more like the people of Ammon who followed the law of Moses but focused on the Giver of the law: “They did not suppose that salvation came by the law of Moses; but the law of Moses did serve to strengthen their faith in Christ; and thus they did retain a hope through faith, unto eternal salvation, relying upon the spirit of prophecy, which spake of those things to come” (Alma 25:16). We can seek to do the same in the laws that we follow. As we pay our tithing, we can remember that it is our hearts that He wants and reflect on His words concerning the widow’s mite. As we fast, we can remember how He fasted forty days and forty nights to commune with His Father. As we study the words of the scriptures, we can focus less on getting a certain amount of pages or chapters read and instead seek to remember that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). As we keep the Word of Wisdom we can focus on His promise that in so doing we can “find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge” because we are enabling His Spirit to come unto our lives more abundantly and teach us of Him. In whatever we are doing, we should seek to see Him and allow “those practices connected to God’s laws to ‘strengthen [our] faith in Christ’” and realize “that Jesus Christ is the only source of power in my observances.” I love her final testimony she gave of Him: “As we allow Him to direct us in all things, we receive testimony that ‘all things denote there is a God,’ because where we look for Him we will find Him—each and every day.”