Are you taking full advantage of the redeeming power of repentance in your life so that you can have greater peace and joy? Feelings of turmoil and despondency often signal a need for repentance…Follow the path to peace and joy through complete repentance. The Savior will help you obtain forgiveness as you sincerely follow all of the steps to repentance. He is the Redeemer. He loves you. He wants you to have peace and joy in your life.
- Richard G. Scott, The Path to Peace and Joy
[L]iving the gospel doesn’t need to be complicated. It is really straightforward. It could be described like this: Hearing the word of God with earnest intent leads us to believe in God and to trust His promises. The more we trust God, the more our hearts are filled with love for Him and for each other...It is beautifully simple, and it works beautifully... God will take you as you are at this very moment and begin to work with you. All you need is a willing heart, a desire to believe, and trust in the Lord.
- Dieter F. Uchtdorf, It Works Wonderfully!
As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are to be examples of how to interact with others—especially when we have differences of opinion. One of the easiest ways to identify a true follower of Jesus Christ is how compassionately that person treats other people…The Savior’s message is clear: His true disciples build, lift, encourage, persuade, and inspire—no matter how difficult the situation. True disciples of Jesus Christ are peacemakers…
- President Russell M. Nelson, Peacemakers Needed
King Benjamin taught that we are responsible for the determined effort necessary to resist temptation. He warned his people about specific temptations. But after giving those warnings, he put the obligation on them. As often as we pray not to be overcome by temptation and to be delivered from evil, we are responsible for ourselves...We can pray to recognize and reject the first thoughts of sin. We can pray to recognize a warning not to speak words which would hurt or tempt someone else. And we can, when we must, pray for the humility and the faith to repent.
- Henry B. Eyring, As a Child
How do we obtain that mighty change of heart? It is initiated and eventually occurs when we study the scriptures to obtain the knowledge that will strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ, which will create a desire to change; when we cultivate that desire through prayer and fasting; when we act, according to the word studied or received, and we make a covenant to surrender our hearts to Him, just as with King Benjamin’s people…let the words of our prophets, which will come from the Lord, enter our hearts to experience a mighty change.
- Eduardo Gavarret, A Mighty Change of Heart: “I Have Nothing More to Give You”
It is important to remember that taking the Savior’s name upon us is a covenant commitment...The sacrament is a weekly reminder that taking upon us the name of Jesus Christ is a living and continuing commitment, not a single event that happens once only on the day of our baptism…As we follow this divinely designed covenant path, our commitment and efforts to take upon us the name of Jesus Christ will give us the strength “to retain [His] name written always in [our] hearts.”
- Paul B. Pieper, All Must Take upon Them the Name Given of the Father
As we develop greater faith and trust in the Lord, we can access His power to bless and deliver us. The Book of Mormon weaves this beautiful theme of the Lord’s power to deliver His children throughout its pages…There are many accounts in the scriptures of those who have put their trust in the Lord and who have been helped and delivered by Him...Each faced real and difficult challenges. Each acted in faith and put his trust in the Lord. Each received His help. And still in our day, God’s power and love are manifest in the lives of His children.
- Jean A. Stevens, “Fear Not; I Am with Thee”
God is the Father of our spirits. He has a glorified, perfected body of flesh and bone. We lived with Him in heaven before we were born. And when He created us physically, we were created in the image of God, each with a personal body...The earth was created to support our brief sojourn in mortality. We were born with a capacity to grow, love, marry, and form families…When you sing “I Am a Child of God,” think of His gift to you of your own physical body.
- President Russell M. Nelson, Thanks Be to God
Why does the Lord call prophets, seers, and revelators? And how do we sustain them? The fundamental responsibility of prophets, seers, and revelators, all of whom bear apostolic authority, is to bear certain testimony of the name of Jesus Christ in all the world…[They] teach the word of God in clarity that all His children may benefit and be blessed through obedience to their teachings.
- Dennis B. Neuenschwander, Living Prophets, Seers, and Revelators
[A] solar eclipse is indeed a remarkable phenomenon of nature during which the beauty, warmth, and light of the sun can be completely covered by a comparatively insignificant object, causing darkness and chill. A similar phenomenon can be replicated in a spiritual sense, when otherwise small and insignificant matters are drawn too close and block the beauty, warmth, and heavenly light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, replacing it with cold darkness…be vigilant not to allow insignificant and inconsequential matters in life to obscure your eternal view...
- Gary E. Stevenson, Spiritual Eclipse
[W]e must have faith in Jesus Christ…through His grace He can make weak things become strong...His strengthening, enabling grace gives us power to overcome all obstacles, all challenges, and all weaknesses as we seek to change. Our greatest weaknesses can become our greatest strengths. We can be changed and “become new creatures.” Weak things literally can “become strong unto [us].”
- Kevin S. Hamilton, “Then Will I Make Weak Things Become Strong”
[T]he steadfast choices of one individual affect generations...Your vision of your future will help you press forward...It is daily diligence with prayer and scripture study that will help you reach your goals. Your daily decisions will influence generations… you will find yourself faced with choices that will have eternal implications. You can press forward with vision. The Holy Ghost will help you remain steadfast, and your testimony of the Savior will help you proceed with a perfect brightness of hope.
- Elaine S. Dalton, Press Forward and Be Steadfast
I have long been impressed by, and have also felt, the yearning love of the prophets of God in their warnings against sin. They are not motivated by a desire to condemn. Their true desire mirrors the love of God; in fact, it is the love of God. They love those to whom they are sent, whoever they may be and whatever they may be like. Just as the Lord, His servants do not want anyone to suffer the pains of sin and poor choices.
- D. Todd Christofferson, The Love of God
We must at times search our own souls and discover what we really are. Our real character, much as we would wish, cannot be hidden. It shines from within us transparently. Attempts to deceive others only deceive ourselves…For members of this Church to enjoy the blessings of a covenant people, the law of the Lord must be written in their hearts.
- James E. Faust, “Search Me, O God, and Know My Heart”
Courage comes in many forms…inner courage also includes doing the right thing even though we may be afraid, defending our beliefs at the risk of being ridiculed, and maintaining those beliefs even when threatened with a loss of friends or of social status. He who stands steadfastly for that which is right must risk becoming at times disapproved and unpopular…Courage characterized the life of Abinadi, as shown by his willingness to offer his life rather than to deny the truth.
- President Thomas S. Monson, Be Strong and of a Good Courage
The Atonement of Jesus Christ is a free gift offered to all who have lived, who currently live, and who will live on the earth. In addition to bearing the burden of our sins, the Christ took upon Himself our sorrows, infirmities, sufferings, and sicknesses and all the afflictions inherent in the mortal condition of man. There is no anguish, no pain or sadness that He did not suffer for us...although infinite and universal in its reach, the Lord’s Atonement is a remarkably personal and intimate gift, suited to each of us individually.
- Gérald Caussé, A Living Witness of the Living Christ
Jesus Christ applies to Himself both titles, “Son” and “Father…Jesus Christ is the Son of Elohim both as spiritual and bodily offspring; that is to say, Elohim is literally the Father of the spirit of Jesus Christ and also the body in which Jesus Christ performed His mission in the flesh, and which body died on the cross and was afterward taken up by the process of resurrection... [I]n all His dealings with the human family Jesus the Son has represented…His Father in power and authority.
- The Father and the Son, April 2002 Ensign
[O]ur Father’s beautiful plan, even His “fabulous” plan, is designed to bring you home, not to keep you out...He sent His precious Beloved Son to this fallen world to live the full range of the human experience, to provide an example for the rest of His children to follow, and to atone and redeem. Christ’s great atoning gift removes every roadblock of physical and spiritual death that would separate us from our eternal home. Everything about the Father’s plan for His beloved children is designed to bring everyone home.
- Patrick Kearon, God’s Intent Is to Bring You Home
Jesus Christ is at the center of all covenants we make, and covenant blessings are made possible because of His atoning sacrifice.
Baptism by immersion is the symbolic gate through which we enter into a covenant relationship with God. Being immersed in the water and coming up again is symbolic of the Savior’s death and Resurrection to new life. As we are baptized, we symbolically die and are born again into the family of Christ and show we are willing to take His name upon us. We ourselves embody that covenant symbolism.
- J. Annette Dennis, Put Ye On the Lord Jesus Christ
[L]et’s talk...about what it really means to become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and how our baptism can bless our lives…Baptism is our spiritual rebirth. It cleanses us from head to toe and allows us the companionship of the Savior through the gift of the Holy Ghost. He will accompany each of us along the road of life...[W]hen we are baptized and confirmed...we become members of Christ’s Church and commit to follow Him...After our baptism, each of us has the blessing of being responsible for every action in our lives.
- Carol B. Thomas, Spiritual Power of Our Baptism
From the beginning, God has sought to gather and organize His children “to bring to pass [our] immortality and eternal life.” With that purpose in mind, He has instructed us to build places of worship where we...gather together often to remember Jesus and strengthen each other in Him...let us realize how privileged we are to belong to the Church of Jesus Christ, where we can unite our faith, hearts, strengths, minds, and hands for Him to perform His mighty miracles…May we respond to this divine invitation and joyfully assemble, organize, prepare, and sanctify ourselves…
- Reyna I. Aburto, We Are The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Our watchmen on the tower are known to us as apostles and prophets. They are our spiritual eyes in the sky, and they know, through inspiration and insight and pure intelligence, the course these storms may take. They continue to raise their voices in warning to tell us of the tragic consequences of willful and wanton violations of the Lord’s commandments. To intentionally ignore their warnings is to court misery, sorrow, and ruin. To follow them is to follow the chosen servants of the Lord into spiritual pastures of peace and plenty.
- David R. Stone, Spiritual Hurricanes
Your joy in life depends upon your trust in Heavenly Father and His holy Son, your conviction that their plan of happiness truly can bring you joy...When you trust in the Lord, when you are willing to let your heart and your mind be centered in His will, when you ask to be led by the Spirit to do His will, you are assured of the greatest happiness along the way and the most fulfilling attainment from this mortal experience…The Lord has said, “Be patient in afflictions, for thou shalt have many; but endure them, for, lo, I am with thee, even unto the end of thy days.” As you are patient, you will come to understand what the statement “I am with thee” means.
- Richard G. Scott, Finding Joy in Life
Many carry heavy burdens…many are heavy laden...sometimes we are “healed” by being given strength or understanding or patience to bear the burdens placed upon us. The people who followed Alma were in bondage to wicked oppressors. When they prayed for relief, the Lord told them He would deliver them eventually, but in the meantime He would ease their burdens...the people did not have their burdens removed, but the Lord strengthened them...The healing power of the Lord Jesus Christ—whether it removes our burdens or strengthens us to endure and live with them…is available for every affliction in mortality.
- President Dallin H. Oaks, He Heals the Heavy Laden