this is the best talk by elder bednar....read, study, repeat!
“In the Strength of the Lord"
(Words of Mormon 1:14;
Mosiah 9:17;Mosiah 10:10; Alma 20:4)
DAVID A. BEDNAR
David A. Bednar was the president of BYU-Idaho when this
devotional
address was given at Brigham Young University on 23 October 2001.
The
Journey of Life
1- The
framework for my message today is a statement by President David O. McKay. He
summarized the overarching purpose of the gospel of the Savior in these terms: "The purpose of the gospel is . . . to
make bad men good and good men better, and to change human nature" (CR,
October 1965, 136–37; see also Brigham Young)
2- Thus
the journey of a lifetime is to progress from bad to good to better and to
experience the mighty change of heart--and to have our fallen natures changed….
3- If
I were to emphasize one overarching point this morning, it would be this: I
suspect that you and I are much more familiar with the nature of the redeeming
power of the Atonement than we are with the enabling power of the Atonement. It
is one thing to know that Jesus Christ came to earth to die for us. That
is fundamental and foundational to the doctrine of Christ. But we also need to
appreciate that the Lord desires, through His Atonement and by the power of the
Holy Ghost, to live in us--not only to direct us but also to empower us.
I think most of us know that when we do things wrong, when we need help to
overcome the effects of sin in our lives, the Savior has paid the price and
made it possible for us to be made clean through His redeeming power. Most of
us clearly understand that the Atonement is for sinners. I am not so sure,
however, that we know and understand that the Atonement is also for saints--for
good men and women who are obedient and worthy and conscientious and who are
striving to become better and serve more faithfully. I frankly do not think
many of us "get it" concerning this enabling and strengthening aspect
of the Atonement, and I wonder if we mistakenly believe we must make the
journey from good to better and become a saint all by ourselves through sheer
grit, willpower, and discipline, and with our obviously limited capacities.
4- Brothers
and sisters, the gospel of the Savior is not simply about avoiding bad in our
lives; it also is essentially about doing and becoming good. And the Atonement provides
help for us to overcome and avoid bad and to do and become good. There is help
from the Savior for the entire journey of life--from bad to good to better and
to change our very nature….
5- I
am not trying to suggest that the redeeming and enabling powers of the
Atonement are separate and discrete. Rather, these two dimensions of the
Atonement are connected and complementary; they both need to be operational
during all phases of the journey of life. And it is eternally important for all
of us to recognize that both of these essential elements of the journey
of life--both putting off the natural man and becoming a saint, both overcoming
bad and becoming good--are accomplished through the power of the Atonement.
Individual willpower, personal determination and motivation, and effective
planning and goal setting are necessary but ultimately insufficient to
triumphantly complete this mortal journey. Truly we must come to rely upon
"the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah" (2 Nephi 2:8).
Grace and the
Enabling Power of the Atonement
6- I
now want to describe in greater detail the enabling power of the Atonement.
Brothers and sisters, please notice the use of the word grace in the
verse from 2 Nephi to which we just referred. In the Bible Dictionary in our
scriptures we learn that the word grace frequently is used in the
scriptures to connote enabling power. On page 697, under the word grace,
we read:
7- "A
word that occurs frequently in the New Testament, especially in the writings of
Paul. The main idea of the word is divine means of help or strength,
given through the bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ (emphasis added).
8- "It
is through the grace of the Lord Jesus, made possible by his atoning sacrifice,
that mankind will be raised in immortality, every person receiving his body
from the grave in a condition of everlasting life."
9- Please
note these next sentences:
10- "It is likewise through the grace of
the Lord that individuals, through faith in the
atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, receive strength and
assistance to d
good works that they
otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means. This grace
is an enabling power that allows men and
women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their
own best efforts" (emphasis added).
11- That
is, grace represents that divine assistance or heavenly help each of us will
desperately need to qualify for the celestial kingdom. Thus the enabling power
of the Atonement strengthens us to do and be good and serve beyond our own
individual desire and natural capacity.
12- In
my personal scripture study I often insert the term enabling power
whenever I encounter the word grace. Consider, for example, this verse
with which we are all familiar: "For we know that it is by grace that we
are saved, after all we can do" (2 Nephi 25:23)….
Illustrations
and Implications
13- The
journey of a lifetime, as described by President McKay, is to go from bad to
good to better and to have our very natures changed. And the Book of Mormon is
replete with examples of disciples and prophets who knew and understood and
were transformed by the enabling power of the Atonement in making that journey.
May I suggest, brothers and sisters, that as we come to better understand this
sacred power, our gospel perspective will be greatly enlarged and enriched.
Such a perspective will change us in remarkable ways.
14- Nephi
is an example of one who knew and understood and relied upon the enabling power
of the Savior. In 1 Nephi 7 we recall that the sons of Lehi had returned to
Jerusalem to enlist Ishmael and his household in their cause. Laman and others
in the party traveling with Nephi from Jerusalem back to the wilderness
rebelled, and Nephi exhorted his brethren to have faith in the Lord. It was at
this point in their trip that Nephi's brothers bound him with cords and planned
his destruction. Now please note Nephi's prayer in verse 17: "O Lord,
according to my faith which is in thee, wilt thou deliver me from the hands of
my brethren; yea, even give me strength that I may burst these bands
with which I am bound" (emphasis added).
15- Brothers
and sisters, do you know what I likely would have prayed for if I had been tied
up by my brothers? My prayer would have included a request for something bad to
happen to my brothers and ended with the phrase "wilt thou deliver me from
the hands of my brethren" or, in other words, "Please get me out of
this mess, now!" It is especially interesting to me that Nephi did not
pray, as I probably would have prayed, to have his circumstances changed.
Rather, he prayed for the strength to change his circumstances. And may I
suggest that he prayed in this manner precisely because he knew and understood
and had experienced the enabling power of the Atonement of the Savior.
16- I
personally do not believe the bands with which Nephi was bound just magically
fell from his hands and wrists. Rather, I suspect that he was blessed with both
persistence and personal strength beyond his natural capacity, that he then
"in the strength of the Lord" (Mosiah 9:17) worked and twisted and
tugged on the cords and ultimately and literally was enabled to break the
bands.
17- Brothers
and sisters, the implication of this episode for each of us is quite
straightforward. As you and I come to understand and employ the enabling power
of the Atonement in our personal lives, we will pray and seek for strength to
change our circumstances rather than praying for our circumstances to be
changed. We will become agents who "act" rather than objects that are
"acted upon" (2 Nephi 2:14).
18- Consider
the example in Mosiah 24 as Alma and his people are being persecuted by Amulon.
As recorded in verse 14, the voice of the Lord came to these good people in
their affliction and indicated: "And I will also ease the burdens which
are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your
backs."
19- Now
if I had been one of Alma's people and received that particular assurance, my
response likely would have been, "I thank thee, and please hurry!"
But notice in verse 15 the process the Lord used to lighten the burden:
"And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and
his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that
they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and
with patience to all the will of the Lord" (emphasis added).
20- Brothers
and sisters, what was changed in this episode? It was not the burden that
changed; the challenges and difficulties of persecution were not immediately
removed from the people. But Alma and his followers were strengthened, and
their increased capacity and strength made the burdens they bore lighter. These
good people were empowered through the Atonement to act as agents and
impact their circumstances--"in the strength of the Lord."
Alma and his people were then directed to safety in the land of Zarahemla.
21- Now
some of you may legitimately be wondering, "Brother Bednar, what makes you
think the episode with Alma and his people is an example of the enabling power
of the Atonement?" I believe the answer to your question is found in a
comparison of Mosiah 3:19 and Mosiah 24:15. Let's resume reading in Mosiah 3:19
where we previously had stopped: "and putteth off the natural man and
becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a
child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to
all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child
doth submit to his father" (emphasis added).
As we progress in the journey of
mortality from bad to good to better, as we put off the natural man or woman in
each of us, and as we strive to become saints and have our very natures
changed, then the attributes detailed in this verse increasingly should
describe the type of person you and I are becoming. We will become more
childlike, more submissive, more patient, and more willing to submit. Now
compare these characteristics in Mosiah 3:19 with those used to describe Alma
and his people in the latter part of verse 15 in Mosiah 24: "and they did submit
cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord"
(emphasis added).
22- I
find the parallels between the attributes described in these verses striking
and an indication that Alma's good people were becoming a better people through
the enabling power of the Atonement of Christ the Lord.
23- We
are all familiar with the story of Alma and Amulek contained in Alma 14. In
this episode many faithful Saints had been put to death by fire, and these two
servants of the Lord had been imprisoned and beaten. Please consider this
petition contained in verse 26 offered by Alma as he prayed in prison: "O
Lord, give us strength according to our faith which is in Christ, even
unto deliverance" (emphasis added).
24- Here
again we see reflected in his request Alma's understanding of and confidence in
the enabling power of the Atonement. Now note the result of this prayer, as described
in the latter part of verse 26 and in verse 28:
25- "And
they [Alma and Amulek] broke the cords with which they were bound; and when the
people saw this, they began to flee, for the fear of destruction had come upon
them. . . .
26- "And
Alma and Amulek came forth out of the prison, and they were not hurt; for the
Lord had granted unto them power, according to their faith which was in
Christ" (emphasis added).
27- Once
again the enabling power is evident as good people struggle against evil and
strive to become even better and serve more effectively "in the strength
of the Lord" (Mosiah 9:17)….
28- Examples
of the enabling power are not found only in the scriptures. Daniel W. Jones was
born in 1830 in Missouri, and he joined the Church in California in 1851. In
1856 he participated in the rescue of handcart companies that were stranded in
Wyoming by severe storms. After the rescue party found the suffering Saints,
provided what immediate comfort they could, and made arrangements for the sick
and the feeble to be transported to Salt Lake City, Daniel and several other
young men volunteered to remain with and safeguard the company's possessions.
The food and supplies left with Daniel and his colleagues were, to say the
least, meager and were rapidly expended. I will now quote from Daniel Jones'
personal journal and his description of the events that followed:
29- "Game
soon became so scarce that we could kill nothing. We ate all the poor meat; one
would get hungry eating it. Finally that was all gone, nothing now but hides
were left. We made a trial of them. A lot was cooked and eaten without any
seasoning and it made the whole company sick. Many were so turned against the
stuff that it made them sick to think of it. . . .
30- "Things
looked dark, for nothing remained but the poor raw hides taken from starved
cattle. We asked the Lord to direct us what to do. The brethren did not murmur,
but felt to trust in God. We had cooked the hide, after soaking and scraping
the hair off until it was soft and then ate it, glue and all. This made it
rather inclined to stay with us longer than we desired. Finally I was impressed
how to fix the stuff and gave the company advice, telling them how to cook it;
for them to scorch and scrape the hair off; this had a tendency to kill and
purify the bad taste that scalding gave it. After scraping, boil one hour in
plenty of water, throwing the water away which had extracted all the glue, then
wash and scrape the hide thoroughly, washing in cold water, then boil to a
jelly and let it get cold, and then eat with a little sugar sprinkled on it.
This was considerable trouble, but we had little else to do and it was better
than starving" (Daniel W. Jones, Forty Years Among the Indians
[Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1890], 81).
31- All
that I have read thus far is a preparation for the next line from Daniel W.
Jones' journal. It illustrates how those pioneer Saints may have known
something about the enabling power of the Atonement that we, in our prosperity
and ease, are not as quick to understand: "We asked the Lord to bless our
stomachs and adapt them to this food" (Jones, Forty Years,
81; emphasis added). My dear brothers and sisters, I know what I would have
prayed for in those circumstances. I would have prayed for something else to
eat. "Heavenly Father, please send me a quail or a buffalo." It never
would have occurred to me to pray that my stomach would be strengthened and
adapted to what we already had. What did Daniel W. Jones know? He knew about
the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He did not pray that his
circumstances would be changed. He prayed that he would be strengthened to deal
with his circumstances. Just as Nephi, Amulek, and Alma and his people were
strengthened, Daniel W. Jones had the spiritual insight to know what to ask for
in that prayer. "We hadn't the faith to ask him to bless the raw-hide, for
it was 'hard stock.' On eating now all seemed to relish the feast. We were
three days without eating before this second attempt was made. We enjoyed this
sumptuous fare for about six weeks" (Jones, Forty Years, 81–82).
32- The
enabling power of the Atonement of Christ strengthens us to do things we could
never do on our own. Sometimes I wonder if in our latter-day world of ease--in
our world of microwave ovens and cell phones and air-conditioned cars and
comfortable homes--I wonder if we ever learn to acknowledge our daily
dependence upon the enabling power of the Atonement.
33- The
greatest lessons I have learned about the enabling power have come from the
quiet example of my wife in our own home. I watched her persevere through
intense and continuous morning sickness and vomiting during each of her three
pregnancies. She literally was sick all day every day for eight months with
each pregnancy. That challenge was never removed from her. But together we
prayed that she would be strengthened, and she indeed was blessed through the
enabling power of the Atonement to do physically what in her own power she
could not do. Sister Bednar is a remarkably capable and competent woman, and
over the years I have seen how she has been magnified to handle the mocking and
scorn that come from a secular society when a Latter-day Saint woman heeds
prophetic counsel and makes the family and home and the nurturing of children
her highest priorities. In today's world a righteous woman and mother in Zion
will need both priesthood support and the enabling power of the Atonement. I
thank and pay tribute to Susan for helping me to learn such invaluable lessons….
34- There
is no physical pain, no anguish of soul, no suffering of spirit, no infirmity
or weakness that you or I ever experience during our mortal journey that the
Savior did not experience first. You and I in a moment of weakness may cry out,
"No one understands. No one knows." No human being, perhaps, knows.
But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He felt and bore our
burdens before we ever did. And because He paid the ultimate price and bore
that burden, He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy in so
many phases of our life. He can reach out, touch, and succor--literally run to
us--and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that
which we could never do through relying only upon our own power….
35- I
express my appreciation for the infinite and eternal sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Atonement is not only for people who have done bad things and
are trying to be good. It is for good people who are trying to become better
and serve faithfully and who yearn for an ongoing and mighty change of heart.
Indeed, "in the strength of the Lord" (Mosiah 9:17) we can do and
overcome all things.
36- Brothers
and sisters, I know the Savior lives. I have experienced both His redeeming and
enabling power, and I witness that these powers are real and available to each
of us. I know He directs the affairs of this Church. I know apostles and
prophets authoritatively act for and in behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ. These
things I know to be true and so testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
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