Draw Near Unto Me

I listened again today to one of my favorite talks from President Nelson: Drawing the Power of Jesus Christ into Our Lives. One of the things that he said in it was this: “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.” He was referencing this invitation from the Savior: “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:36). It is indeed challenging to focus our thoughts more frequently on Him when there are so many cares of the world that press for our attention. President Nelson continued, “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.” He told of how he had done just that: he read and marked every scripture reference in the Topical Guide about Jesus Christ. That included hundreds if not thousands of verses that he read and pondered about the Savior. He said after he did this exercise, “I am a different man!” If we want to truly be changed by the Savior, we have to similarly make sacrifices to draw near unto Him through prayer, the study of His word, worship in the temple, and simply reaching out to Him through our thoughts and desires. I love this invitation that He gave us: “Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:63).

                When my wife was pregnant with our second child, we took a trip to Canada. We were living in northern Idaho at the time, and we drove up across the border and the plan was to make our way to Cardston to the temple and then back down through Glacier National Park before returning home. But as we crossed Crowsnest Pass in Alberta, a deer jumped in front of our car while we were going 60 mph on the highway, and our car was badly damaged. It could no longer be driven, and we had to get it towed and find a place to stay. It was a Friday, a holiday in Canada, and the next Monday was a holiday in the U.S. and so it was very difficult to get our new plans arranged and work things out with the insurance. We finally got our rental car several days later, and we decided we weren’t going to give up on our goal: we would still make it to the Cardston Temple even though we wouldn’t be able to make the rest of the trip and I would have to take one more day off of work than planned. So, we rode there and my wife and I each did an endowment session separately, taking turns watching our one-year-old daughter outside. It was in that session that I learned what the name of our second son should be: Samuel. The name means “God has heard” and to me it was a reminder that we need to hear God as well. I believe that it was because we made that extra effort to still get to the temple—when we could have easily just returned home after such a disappointing trip—that I was able to learn from the Spirit what I needed to know. I think that is the general idea of what President Nelson was teaching us about stretching—we must do a little more to reach out to the Savior than we otherwise would have done. It means praying longer or more frequently than we normally would, spending a little more time in the scriptures than we are used to, or making a bigger sacrifice of time to be in the House of the Lord. Enos taught us about this when he described his earnest prayer to the Lord: “And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens” (Enos 1:4). His prayer reached the heavens because he reached fervently out to the Savior. We must strive to find ways to reach out to Him with more intensity, and as President Nelson promised, we will find access to His power.