Happy Sabbath, everyone! I'm still working on my Come, Follow Me thoughts for this week (I've gone on some study tangents and am yet to finish the material). But here is the talk I gave in church today. My topic was the talk "Overcome the World and Find Rest" by President Russell M. Nelson. I was excited to receive this subject because that talk is based on my favorite scripture, John 16:33. I was a teenager when I found that scripture. I badly needed comfort in my life and I felt the Spirit touch my heart with warmth and love when I read it. I've held onto it ever since.
John 16:33
33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
It’s a hopeful scripture. President Nelson’s talk is full of hope, too. Look at this remarkable paragraph:
My dear brothers and sisters, so many wonderful things are ahead. In coming days, we will see the greatest manifestations of the Savior’s power that the world has ever seen. Between now and the time He returns “with power and great glory,” He will bestow countless privileges, blessings, and miracles upon the faithful.
Greater than the world has ever seen? What a promise! It reminds me of a scene from “The Chosen” where one of the Savior’s disciples proclaims, “Can you believe we’re here for this?” That's the kind of zeal and enthusiasm that we should have now! We are here during a time when the gospel has been restored with temples, the priesthood, and so many things that I'm afraid we take for granted. I think we forget what an incredible time we live in. Miracles are still happening. They might not be big and dramatic like they were in the time of Jesus Christ. They might not attract huge crowds. But they are happening. We need to look for His hands in our lives and acknowledge those blessings, even the little tender mercies. The enabling power of the Atonement is real and important.
We want to be ready for all that is coming. As we prepare ourselves, we need to overcome the world and the natural man. That’s what President Nelson is teaching us to do.
As I have stated before, the gathering of Israel is the most important work taking place on earth today. One crucial element of this gathering is preparing a people who are able, ready, and worthy to receive the Lord when He comes again, a people who have already chosen Jesus Christ over this fallen world, a people who rejoice in their agency to live the higher, holier laws of Jesus Christ.
I call upon you, my dear brothers and sisters, to become this righteous people. Cherish and honor your covenants above all other commitments. As you let God prevail in your life, I promise you greater peace, confidence, joy, and yes, rest.
President Nelson loves to talk about letting God prevail. I think doing that (making Jesus Christ our top priority) is the key to everything. I'm fascinated by the idea of “rejoice in their agency.” I admit that, when making difficult decisions, agency can feel like a burden. Some choices are hard. But it's something we can find joy in as we choose the Savior and His path. Yes, following the Savior and keeping our covenants is hard. But we are to rejoice in our ability to choose and find joy as we use our agency to follow Him. There are many good things in this world, but “the higher, holier laws of Jesus Christ” are the best. We need to choose Him. Every day. And when we don’t choose Him, we need to repent as quickly and genuinely as we can.
So, what does it mean to overcome the world?
I found several examples in President Nelson’s talk:
Overcoming the temptation to care more about the things of this world than the things of God.
Trusting the doctrine of Christ more than the philosophies of men.
Delighting in truth, denouncing deception, and becoming “humble followers of Christ.”
Choosing to refrain from anything that drives the Spirit away.
Being willing to “give away” even our favorite sins.
Growing to love God and His Beloved Son more than you love anyone or anything else.
President Nelson said:
“How, then, do we overcome the world? King Benjamin taught us how. He said that “the natural man is an enemy to God” and remains so forever “unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord.” Each time you seek for and follow the promptings of the Spirit, each time you do anything good—things that “the natural man” would not do—you are overcoming the world.”
It’s all about choosing Jesus Christ in every aspect of our lives. That’s easier said than done, but the blessings are worth it.
"The Resurrected Jesus Christ" by Harry Anderson
When we face tough decisions, we can ask ourselves:
What would the natural man do?
What would Jesus do? (Anyone else remember having a WWJD bracelet?)
I’ll let you ponder my next thoughts and then decide which path is better to follow - the natural man or Jesus Christ?
President Nelson taught:
Now, how does overcoming the world bless our lives? The answer is clear: entering into a covenant relationship with God binds us to Him in a way that makes everything about life easier. Please do not misunderstand me: I did not say that making covenants makes life easy. In fact, 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.
Here are the promises I found in the talk:
Your resistance to sin will increase.
Your heart will soften as your faith in Jesus Christ increases.
Spiritual strength
Personal revelation
Increasing faith
Ministering of angels.
Greater charity, humility, generosity, kindness, self-discipline, peace, and rest.
I noticed that a lot of these things are attributes of Jesus Christ. As we choose Him, we are able to become more and more like him. I like this thought from President Nelson:
As we strive to live the higher laws of Jesus Christ, our hearts and our very natures begin to change. The Savior lifts us above the pull of this fallen world … Living the doctrine of Christ can produce the most powerful virtuous cycle, creating spiritual momentum in our lives.
So, the path of the natural man or the path of the Savior? Definitely the Savior. His path is all about covenants - another of President Nelson's favorite topics.
Making and keeping covenants actually makes life easier! Each person who makes covenants in baptismal fonts and in temples—and keeps them—has increased access to the power of Jesus Christ. Please ponder that stunning truth!
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.
We aren’t perfect and the process of our perfection will take time. That’s okay. President Nelson said:
Overcoming the world is not an event that happens in a day or two. It happens over a lifetime as we repeatedly embrace the doctrine of Christ. We cultivate faith in Jesus Christ by repenting daily and keeping covenants that endow us with power.
Again and again, he mentions the power we are given as we repent daily and keep our covenants. We need to take that seriously. This is power that we desperately need in our lives. It doesn't make things easy, but it can give us perspective and enable us to do things we couldn't do without the Savior. It's worth putting in the work to have this blessing in our lives.
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.
That’s the second mention in this talk about “the pull” of our fallen world. President Nelson is acknowledging that it's hard to be mortal. Temptations are real and difficult. There is a pull that tries to make us focus on worldly priorities. We can’t lose sight of our Savior and why we’re really here. We can’t be passive followers! We have to be active.
The pull of this world tries to take us away from Jesus Christ. It's constantly nagging at us. If we aren't actively feeding our testimonies, taking care of our spirits, and doing all of that work ... guess who is never, ever passive? The adversary. He is constantly active, coming after us with that "pull," to draw us deeper into the world and the things he wants. We have to be really careful to do these things so we can fight against that pull. We have been given many tools to help us.
Another quote from President Nelson:
Take charge of your own testimony of Jesus Christ and His gospel. Work for it. Nurture it so that it will grow. Feed it truth. Don’t pollute it with false philosophies of unbelieving men and women. As you make the continual strengthening of your testimony of Jesus Christ your highest priority, watch for miracles to happen in your life.
Miracles? That sounds pretty good to me and I can tell you it’s true. I’ve been watching and seeing them in my life as I focus more on prioritizing the Savior. This year, my goal is to focus on Him and to do it first. I'm trying to pray and study scriptures at the beginning of the day before I'm hit with chores, responsibilities, and the chaos of motherhood. I have felt a night and day difference in myself when I do that. When I make the gospel a priority, I feel good, my interactions with my children go well, and I'm inwardly at peace so I don't feel a need to control everything. On the days I don't do it, I feel like I have an icky monster inside of me that wants to lash out at everyone and ruin my relationships. I'm starting to recognize it and think, Oh, I haven't put the Savior first today and that's making me not okay. I'm trying to be better at choosing Him.
When we do the work, we open ourselves up to major blessings from Him. That’s real. I testify of it. Give it a try.
President Nelson’s blessing:
With the power of the holy apostleship vested in me, I bless you in your quest to overcome this world. I bless you to increase your faith in Jesus Christ and learn better how to draw upon His power. I bless you to be able to discern truth from error. I bless you to care more about the things of God than the things of this world. I bless you to see the needs of those around you and strengthen those you love. Because Jesus Christ overcame this world, you can too.
President Nelson also gave us some action items. If you’ve been dozing off so far, I want you to pay attention now. Faith is an action word. This is what we’re being asked to do by our prophet, who we are expected to respect, listen to, and follow. This is something we can do to be active followers.
- Show God through prayer and action that you are serious about overcoming the world.
- Ask Him for enlightenment and help.
- Every day record your thoughts as you pray and then “follow through diligently”.
- Spend more time in the temple and ponder what it teaches us about rising above this fallen world.
We need to make our intentions known and then ask for His help. We need to pay attention to the temple and what experiences there teach us about fighting "the pull." We need to be present (in the moment) when we pray and communicate with Him. It can be hard to not let our minds drift to our to-do lists as we pray. I'm so guilty of that. But when we pause and put ourselves in the right places and mindsets to receive promptings, we will. Then we need to write them down, record a voice memo, etc - whatever it takes to remember what we've learned and follow through ... in other words, act! I'm a firm believer that acting on promptings brings more promptings and strengthens our ability to feel the Spirit.
I’ll add a couple more things I noticed in the talk:
Seek for and follow the promptings of the Spirit.
I love this because it shows how active we need to be. We can’t just sit around waiting for promptings. We need to put ourselves in places to feel the Spirit. We need to ask for promptings and guidance. And then we can’t take that personal revelation for granted. We need to obey.
Ponder the fact that making and keeping covenants increases our access to the power of Jesus Christ.
I think there’s a lot packed into that principle. For now, it suffices to say that as we keep our covenants, we increase our access to the power of Jesus Christ. I think we can use that more than we do.
I’m emphasizing these things because this is an invitation - a plea - from our prophet. Please don’t take it lightly. He gave us specific things to work on daily and we need to follow through. We need to do things like this in order to be spiritually fed and nurture our testimonies.
The adversary is always working against our testimonies, our connection with the Spirit, and our ability to access the power of Jesus Christ. He is never passive - not for a second - so we need to do the work to stay strong and close to the Savior. I said all that before, but please listen. Don't allow yourself to be passive. I know it's hard. Sometimes being a disciple of Jesus Christ is overwhelming, exhausting, and full of sacrifice. But it is worth it. We can find joy in our agency as we strive to follow Him. We can experience miracles.
God is the creator of everything and everything belongs to Him. The blessings He has in store for us are limitless. He wants to pour blessings on us, but we have to act in ways that allow Him to do so. His path, the covenant path, is always the best choice. Period.
I’d like to end with this quote that President Nelson shared:
I reaffirm a profound teaching of President Ezra Taft Benson: “Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, … lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends, and pour out peace.”
Goodness knows, I'm a hypocrite in lots of ways, but I've experimented enough on these things to know they are true. I testify that our Savior loves us and that He has given us the tools in these latter-days to follow Him with joy. He wants us to have joy. Putting Him first makes the ultimate joy possible. Let's overcome the world together.
Bonnie Gwyn
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