Recharge Your Spiritual Battery

 

The Covenant Path: The Way to Eternal Life

By Elder Adeyinka A. Ojediran

Of the Seventy

In staying faithful to our covenants, we should endeavor to always have the Spirit to prepare us to worthily partake of the sacrament, and likewise, we regularly partake of the sacrament to always have the Spirit with us.

When our daughter was five years old, she had a battery-powered model car and loved to drive it around the house. One evening, she came to me and said, “Daddy, my car no longer drives. Could we get some gas from your car to put in it so it can drive again? Perhaps it needs gas like your car to drive.”

I later observed that the battery power was down, so I said we would get it to drive in about an hour. With so much excitement, she said, “Yes! We will take it to the gas station.” I simply connected the battery to an electric source to charge, and after an hour she was able to drive the car, powered by the charged battery. She thereafter learned that it is important to always recharge the battery by connecting it to an electric source.

As our daughter learned the relationship between the battery and power to drive her toy car, so we learn about Jesus Christ, the sacrament, and the Spirit. We need the Spirit to help us navigate through mortality as we faithfully keep covenants, and we need the sacrament to energize our spiritual being. Renewing our baptismal covenant and partaking of the sacrament drive faithfulness to all other covenants. A happy ending is assured as we prayerfully study and honor the Savior’s invitation and enjoy His promised blessings. He said, “And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day” (Doctrine and Covenants 59:9).

Spiritual Moments - Highlights

 

The Power of Spiritual Momentum

By President Russell M. Nelson

President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

My call today, dear brothers and sisters, is to end conflicts that are raging in your heart, your home, and your life. Bury any and all inclinations to hurt others—whether those inclinations be a temper, a sharp tongue, or a resentment for someone who has hurt you. The Savior commanded us to turn the other cheek,¹ to love our enemies, and to pray for those who despitefully use us....

How can we expect peace to exist in the world when we are not individually seeking peace and harmony? Brothers and sisters, I know what I’m suggesting is not easy. But followers of Jesus Christ should set the example for all the world to follow. I plead with you to do all you can to end personal conflicts that are currently raging in your hearts and in your lives....

So I ask, what can ignite spiritual momentum?

We have never needed positive spiritual momentum more than we do now, to counteract the speed with which evil and the darker signs of the times are intensifying. Positive spiritual momentum will keep us moving forward amid the fear and uncertainty created by pandemics, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and armed hostilities. Spiritual momentum can help us withstand the relentless, wicked attacks of the adversary and thwart his efforts to erode our personal spiritual foundation.

Many actions can ignite positive spiritual momentum. Obedience, love, humility, service, and gratitude⁴ are but a few.

Today I would like to suggest five specific actions we can take to help us maintain positive spiritual momentum.

First: Get on the covenant path and stay there.

Discover the joy of daily repentance.

Repenting is the key to progress. Pure faith keeps us moving forward on the covenant path.

Please do not fear or delay repenting. Satan delights in your misery. Cut it short. Cast his influence out of your life! Start today to experience the joy of putting off the natural man.¹⁰ The Savior loves us always but especially when we repent. He promised that though “the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed … my kindness shall not depart from thee.”...

Walking the covenant path, coupled with daily repentance, fuels positive spiritual momentum.

My third suggestion: Learn about God and how He works.

We should follow that example. Cast Satan’s influence out of your life! Please do not follow him down to his “gulf of misery and endless wo.”¹⁹

With frightening speed, a testimony that is not nourished daily “by the good word of God”²⁰ can crumble. Thus, the antidote to Satan’s scheme is clear: we need daily experiences worshipping the Lord and studying His gospel. I plead with you to let God prevail in your life. Give Him a fair share of your time. As you do, notice what happens to your positive spiritual momentum.

Suggestion number 4: Seek and expect miracles.

...the Lord will bless you with miracles if you believe in Him, “doubting nothing.”²³ Do the spiritual work to seek miracles. Prayerfully ask God to help you exercise that kind of faith. I promise that you can experience for yourself that Jesus Christ “giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.”²⁴ Few things will accelerate your spiritual momentum more than realizing the Lord is helping you to move a mountain in your life.

Suggestion number 5: End conflict in your personal life.

Two weeks from today we celebrate Easter. Between now and then, I invite you to seek an end to a personal conflict that has weighed you down. Could there be a more fitting act of gratitude to Jesus Christ for His Atonement? If forgiveness presently seems impossible, plead for power through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ to help you. As you do so, I promise personal peace and a burst of spiritual momentum.

When the Savior atoned for all mankind, He opened a way that those who follow Him can have access to His healing, strengthening, and redeeming power. These spiritual privileges are available to all who seek to hear Him and follow Him.

My dear brothers and sisters, with all the pleadings of my heart, I urge you to get on the covenant path and stay there. Experience the joy of repenting daily. Learn about God and how He works. Seek and expect miracles. Strive to end conflict in your life.

As you act on these pursuits, I promise you the ability to move forward on the covenant path with increased momentum, despite whatever obstacles you face. And I promise you greater strength to resist temptation, more peace of mind, freedom from fear, and greater unity in your families.

 

Teaching Self-Reliance to Children and Youth

By Elder Hugo E. Martinez

Of the Seventy

 I’ve come to know that adults can best be on the path toward self-reliance when they have been taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and have practiced its doctrine and principles since childhood and as youth in the home....

We become self-reliant throughout our lives by growing in spiritual strength, improving our physical and emotional health, pursuing our education and employment, and being temporally prepared.² Is this task ever finished during our lives? No, it is a lifelong process of learning, growth, and work. It never ends; it is a continuous, daily process.

Pray for all of God's children to receive the gospel

 Back in 1979, President Russell M. Nelson attended a meeting where President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) charged them to pray that the doors of nations would be opened so that the gospel of Jesus Christ could be brought to all people on earth.

 President Nelson extended that same invitation to you. “My fourth invitation is for you to pray daily that all of God’s children might receive the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ,” said President Nelson. “You and I are living to see, and will continue to see, Israel gathered with great power. And you can be part of the power behind that gathering!”

President and Sister Nelson's devotional to youth.

Those Who Keep Their Covenants...

 "Those who keep their covenants with God will become a strain of sin-resistant souls! Those who keep their covenants will have the strength to resist the constant influence of the world."

The Everlasting Covenant

By President Russell M. Nelson

President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

October 2022 Liahona