My sacrament talk. I journal this for my kids to read the stories and my testimony.
Overcome the World
and Find Rest
November 13, 2022
In the book of John we read about
the Passover meal, or the Last Supper, where Jesus and the 12 disciples
gathered together. It was Jesus’ last week of life and with Thanksgiving coming
up I wonder if it was like my Thanksgiving dinners (and maybe this is a
stretch…) where everyone eats, and then everyone lounges around afterwards and
talks and enjoys each others company, and asks questions about how people in
their family are doing, and there is just a lot of back and forth going on. That’s
kinda how I envision this night going, just one of those long nights with good
friends. It must have been a really cool and tender encounter where Jesus was
trying to prepare them for what was going to happen and the heartbreak they are
going to feel soon.
Of course Jesus knew that the end
was near, not only does he say that but especially by the things that He taught
during the Last Supper. One of His teachings is found in John 16:33, Jesus
said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have
overcome the world.” And then Jesus said, “I will that ye should
overcome the world.”
In President Nelson’s most recent
conference address which was titled “Overcome the World and Find Rest” he tells
us that “because Jesus Christ overcame this fallen world, and because He
atoned for each of us, we too can overcome this world.” He states, “Because
the Savior, through His infinite Atonement, redeemed each of us from weakness,
mistakes, and sin, and because He experienced every pain, worry, and burden you
have ever had, then as you truly repent and seek His help, you can rise above
this present precarious world.”
It seems like such an overwhelming
call to “overcome the world” but I love how he tells us that God knows we are
going to make mistakes. In fact, He actually planned on us making them, which
is why we have the Atonement. He really is not concerned with whether we will
or will not make mistakes. What He cares about is what we do after. And I love
that because of Jesus Christ our mistakes don’t have to define us. That because
of Jesus we can repent and become who we were meant to be.
So, what does it mean to overcome
the world? Pres. Nelson said, “It means overcoming the temptation to care
more about the things of this world than the things of God. It means trusting
the doctrine of Christ more than the philosophies of men…. It means choosing to
refrain from anything that drives the Spirit away. It means being willing to
“give away” even our favorite sins.” He then adds, “Overcoming the world
means growing to love God and His Beloved Son more than you love anyone or
anything else.”
Russ’ calling in church comes with
a lot of church meetings to attend. It just does. He is gone for most of the
day on Sundays and then every Tuesday evening for Young Mens. It definitely has
been something our family has had to adjust to. In the beginning our kids would
complain and whine and say stuff like, “Dad, Why do you have to go to another
church meeting? Or, “You have to go back to the church again?” Or, even I have
been found saying, “Do you really need to go every Tuesday?” Russ’ response,
initially was to passively agree with us saying something like, “I know but I
got another meeting to go to.” Or something like that. Recently he has changed
his response. When the kids ask these questions he now responds with, “Because
I love The Lord.” “Why do you have to go…” Because I love The Lord. That
perspective switch has done a lot for our family to change our hearts from
feeling begrudged about his time away from us to realizing the fact that we, as
a family, accepted this calling because we do love The Lord. Pres. Ezra Taft Benson said, “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.” And yeah we are so not perfect at it and
complaining in our household has not magically evaporated but when we remember
why we do it, it helps us get back on that pathway of creating positive “spiritual
momentum” that Pres. Nelson has talked about before.
So, how do we overcome the world? I
feel like that is a super difficult point to address because we all each have
our own “natural man” right? I feel like we are all trying to figure out what
it looks like for us personally to overcome the world. And it’s a daily battle
because we live in a world where the “natural man” is embraced. Where we should
follow our own impulses. If you have to stomp on people, stomp on them. If you
have to lie to get ahead, do it. It is a dog eat dog mentality, meaning people should
do whatever it takes to be successful, even if what they do harms other people.
Pres. Nelson said, “Each time you do anything good—things that “the natural
man” would not do—you are overcoming the world.” He then reminds us, which
I’m so grateful for this reminder, that overcoming the world is not an event
that happens in just a day or two. I’ve heard Elder Anderson once say that, “It
is not one defining moment but a lifetime of moments that define an eternity.”
This year I have really enjoyed my
study of the Old Testament. Embarrassingly, this is the first time ever I have
studied this book. So I feel like I have discovered things and learned things
in a whole new way than ever before. And although this wasn’t a new story to
me, I particularly loved my study of the creation of the Earth in Genesis. The
creation was not a 1 day event but it was a process. God very much could have
snapped his fingers and created the Earth just like that but I think there is
something to be said about the process of progression and increase in that
story. In every step in God creating the Earth the scriptures have a repeated
phrase, “and God saw that it was good.” Emily Belle Freeman once said, “I
think it is human nature to wait until the process is completed to evaluate
whether or not our work is good. It is always in the end that we step back and evaluate
our finished work and determine its worth. But not God. He saw the goodness in
every step of the progression. He was just as interested in the day-to-day
progress as he was in the finished product. We often wonder if we are enough,
wonder if we are failing or falling, we doubt, we consider giving up but God
never expected the result of day 6 on day 2. I love that thought. God
never expected the result of day 6 on day 2. With every step of the creation,
knowing what He wanted to accomplish in the end, each step was still good. I
don’t know why we put the pressure on ourselves to become complete today
instead of embracing the idea of progression? Being a little better every day. The
creation story shows us that we have a God who knows about line upon line. He
sees where we have come from. He knows what our days were like yesterday. He
knows our hard. He knows when I wake up already feeling overwhelmed and
discouraged. He knows when as Pres. Nelson said “you wish you could don your
pajamas, curl up in a ball, and ask someone to awaken you when the turmoil is
over.” We can be working towards overcoming the world and still be good in
the process. We can have work yet to do AND have a God that is still thrilled
of where we are. I love the quote that we can be both a work in progress
and a masterpiece at the same time. We have to try to be patient with ourselves
as we repeatedly make mistakes and also make steps towards progression.
Third, how does overcoming the
world bless our lives? Pres. Nelson says, “The answer is clear: entering
into a covenant relationship with God binds us to Him in a way that makes
everything about life easier. Now notice he did not say that it will make
your life easy, but it will make it easier. Which, by the way, Pres. Nelson’s
talk is just full of great “one liners.” If you haven’t read it yet, I think
you will find so many good one liners sprinkled throughout it. I feel like the theme of a lot of Pres.
Nelson’s talks are “stay on the covenant path,” or “be covenant keeping
people.” In this talk, he says that, “Each person who makes covenants
in baptismal fonts and in temples, and keeps them, has increased access to the
power of Jesus Christ.”
God has always been interested in
having covenant relationships with His children. We read about it in the Pearl
of Great Price with Abraham, and the “Abrahamic Covenant.” The world has this
idea that God shouldn’t set boundaries because that contradicts that He is a
loving God. God loves us no matter what we do, that is just a true fact of Him
being our Father. He could never not love us! BUT its also true that He
wants a relationship with us, a covenant relationship. I once listened to a
podcast that gave such a great analogy for me to understand this a little
better. Think of your marriage or your relationships with people. My husband,
Russ, for instance. Our marriage began with a special day. We had planned for
it and prepared for it for months. And our marriage has expectations, and
boundaries, and conditions, and privileges. I expect things of Russ, and he of
me. There are certain things that are okay in our marriage and others that
simply aren’t. Sometimes I even do things for Russ that I really don’t want to
do or don’t understand just because I love him. This is true of all
relationships we have with people. You have certain expectations and conditions
with your employer, your friends, your neighbors, or any relationship we have. This
is the same for the relationship God wants with us. There are commandments and
boundaries and expectations that God has set for us. Sometimes we don’t
understand them all, I know I don’t understand it all, but I try to follow
because of my love for Him. My covenant relationship with God has expectations
and privileges just like my relationship with Russ.
I have a testimony that Jesus
Christ has overcome the world. I know that to be true. I believe in Jesus. That
He is real, and good, and loving and was willing to do anything it took to
rescue me. I have felt the redemptive powers of the Atonement in my life and
know that it is real. Jesus promises that we can have peace and rest in this crazy
world when we have a relationship with Him. Sometimes people think they want a
God who doesn’t tell them they are wrong at times and doesn’t intervene. But
don’t we really want a God who cares enough to insert himself into our lives
wherever we are and not be silent about the things that can ruin or destroy us.
I mean a God that expects nothing out of me is not making anything out of me
either.
I do believe that He can get us to
a place that we could never get to on our own. Honestly my testimony in certain
things is still a work and progress but I love that we have a God where I don’t
have to all it all put together to approach him or for him to want a
relationship with me. I don’t have to be the best. I don’t have to be better
than anyone else either. My choice is not to believe in everything OR nothing
at all. I can offer Him whatever I can at this moment and then watch what He
can do with my willing heart. Just as in the creation of the Earth, God can be
just as creative in our own stories. If he can take blackness and nothingness
and turn it into something complete and beautiful on day 7 then surely he can
take whatever our stories look like and turn them into something amazing and
wonderful.
I know
that God knows exactly who we are and where we are. We get to choose how much
of His blessings and presence that we want in our life. When we want to become
something more, He invites us into that covenant relationship that will enable
that to happen. I so am grateful for a God that loves me just as I am and is
patient with the process of me becoming who He wants me to be. In the name of
Jesus Christ, Amen.
