Drawing Upon the Savior's Strength

 “In [his] old age,” King Zeniff led his people to battle against the Lamanites “in the strength of the Lord.” The Lamanites, on the other hand, “knew nothing concerning the Lord, nor the strength of the Lord, therefore they depended upon their own strength” (Mosiah 10:10-11). How do you approach your daily battles? Do you know the Lord and how to approach your daily challenges in His strength? Or is whatever you “know” about the Lord not really a factor in your day-to-day life? Do you, wittingly or unwittingly, live your life depending on your own strength?

As I pondered these questions the other day in my Come Follow Me study of Mosiah, this oft-repeated invitation of President Nelson came to mind: “Please teach those whom you love . . . how to draw upon [Christ’s] strengthening power every day of their lives. . . . More regular time in the temple will allow the Lord to teach you how to draw upon His priesthood power with which you have been endowed in His temple.” (“Sisters’ Participation in the Gathering of Israel,” October 2018)

I noticed his use of those two words, “draw upon,” in subsequent General Conference messages. For example, in the 2019 Sisters’ Session, he “entreated” the sisters “to study prayerfully all the truths you can find about [the] priesthood power” you received in the temple so that “your ability to draw upon this spiritual treasure that the Lord has made available” to you in the temple would “increase”. (“Spiritual Treasures,” October 2019) 

“How do I draw the Savior’s power into my life?” President Nelson asked us all in this watershed message. “This process,” he answered, is not “spelled out in any manual,” nor is it “quick” or “easy.” But, oh! How important it is! 

In fact, as I have carefully studied and pondered what the Lord is teaching us through His Prophet, it is clear to me that this vital “process” is at the heart of every invitation He extends to us, from “think[ing] celestial,” to being a “peacemaker,” to “overcome[ing] the world,” to harnessing the “power of spiritual momentum” in our lives and making the temple our “spiritual foundation,” to obtaining the faith to move the “mountains” and letting "God prevail” in our lives, and so forth.

For example, President Nelson has taught that Christ, through the “compensatory price” He paid, “provided the power for you to move every mountain you will ever face”—whether “loneliness, doubt, illness, or other personal problems.” (“Christ Is Risen; Faith in Him Will Move Mountains,” April 2021) Such “personal problems” may include not only the intensely personal process of “putting off” or overcoming addictions such as “gaming, gambling, debt, drugs, alcohol, anger, pornography, sex, or even food,” which “offend God” and “rob [us of our] agency” (“Think Celestial!” October 2024), but “putting on” such Christlike attributes as greater faith, patience, long-suffering, meekness, unselfishness and love.

For me, Christ’s conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well provides a key to the process President Nelson encourages each of us to study and internalize in our lives. “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” “To ‘draw upon’ the [power or] spiritual treasures of the gospel requires that we act in faith. We must come ‘hither,’ that is, to the well, to the source of the Living Water, even the Savior (and to no other person or thing), to draw upon His power (John 4:13–15).” (Stephen L. Fluckiger, Drawing Upon the Spiritual Treasures of the Temple, xii)

God bless us, each and every one, to cherish this truth! AND to learn how to apply it in our every day lives. –Stephen Fluckiger