Whether you worship a God, formidable force, energy within yourself, or something else, how do you access that power?
In the church that I attend, we have holy temples which are places we can go to make covenants (or promises) with God. There are several covenants you can make with Him, each one requiring something of you, and in return, you can receive certain blessings from God. Growing up, I had a fairly good idea of what covenants were, though I didn’t always understand the ones I was making nor did I understand the power I had access to by keeping those covenants. I’m still learning these things today!
To go back a little bit, I have been praying very hard for the gift of charity, a gift in which the characteristics involved tie to many different covenants. To be more specific is a scripture explaining this gift:
44 If so, his afaith and hope is vain, for none is bacceptable before God, save the cmeek and lowly in heart; and if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and dconfesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity.
45 And acharity suffereth long, and is bkind, and cenvieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily dprovoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—
47 But acharity is the pure blove of Christ, and it endureth cforever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.
48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, apray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true bfollowers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall cbe like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be dpurified even as he is pure. Amen. (Moroni 7: 44-48)
I’ve been praying almost daily for this gift for probably around 8 months and I can say that I feel like I’m still where I was 8 months ago. Maybe not exactly how I was. I look back at how I use to be and I can definitely see some progress, but it’s no where near where I would like to be. I will run into situations all the time though where I have the choice to either be charitable or not, and I find myself pausing and thinking a lot more often before I react. So I guess you could say it’s going okay, but back to the point:
As I have been trying to develop this gift of charity, my relationship with my Heavenly Father (God) has improved immensely and I can see that. I have been able to trust Him more instead of stressing myself out entirely when difficult situations occur. I was listening to a talk this morning from one of our church leaders about the specific subject of “Accessing God’s Power through Covenants” and he talked about many of the blessings we are able to to receive through keeping our promises with God. One of them is “we gain greater power to resist temptation and to repent when we stumble”. When I heard this, I immediately thought to the ability I’ve had lately to resist reacting to situations in an angry or irrational manner, in which I’m not proud of. My husband would probably laugh at me saying this because I am no where near perfect at this, but even at those times where I choose to react in a not-so-charitable way, I always feel the need to repent and obtain forgiveness immediately after it happens.
There are many other blessings I recognized from listening to this talk that are occurring in my life as I’ve tried to access the power of my God, though I do know I have a long way to go. I know that as I continue to understand and keep the covenants I have already made, that I will continue to see these blessings in my life and be strengthened by them.
Especially in the world we live in today, I believe that knowing how to, being able to, and actually bringing greater power into our lives will give us the strength we need to overcome the inevitable difficult challenges constantly being thrown at us.
What have your experiences been like as you’ve sought to bring greater power into your life and home?
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