Enabling Power of Christ

For a long time now, I have been striving for spiritual growth by focusing on listening to the Spirit. However, this morning, I read an article by Elder David A. Bednar called “The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality.” As I read, my eyes began to be opened to a significant part of the gospel that I have been overlooking too often. I know the power that Jesus Christ has to cleanse me from sin, but what about the power He has to change me, to strengthen me, and to enable me to do much more than I am capable of on my own? I have experienced this second kind of power; I know it is real, but I am coming to understand that this power can literally carry me through every hour of the day when I call on Him. I am reminded of Laurel Christenson's admonishment in her talk at Time Out for Women to “pray with faith, live with faith, and think with faith.” She said we would do well to start living with the expectation that things will actually turn out the way we want them to. What a positive change that would bring to my daily struggles! Of course, for the times when the Lord does not see fit to bless us with what we have desired, he can strengthen us to bear up underneath the burdens that are laid upon us through trials and suffering. Even so, are there times when I have fallen short of the faith that could have brought me miracles and deliverance, had I been insightful enough to ask for the strength to overcome them? Elder Bednar recounts numerous times in the scriptures when men of great faith prayed specifically to have the strength to be able to change their circumstances. He notes that they did not pray to have their circumstances changed. They prayed to have the strength and wisdom and power to act, even unto deliverance. Nephi prayed for the strength to break the cords with which his brothers had bound him. Elder Bednar says, “I do not think the bands with which Nephi was bound just magically fell from his hands and wrists. Rather, I suspect he was blessed with both persistence and personal strength beyond his natural capacity, that he then, “in the strength of the Lord,” worked and twisted and tugged on the cords, and ultimately and literally was enabled to break the bands.” Sometimes I feel as though I have been working and twisting and tugging and just...failing. Yet over and over again, I have asked the Lord what task I am to eliminate from my busy life and over and over again, he says, “You can do all that I have commanded you to do.” Yet as I plan and work and do, still at times, things do not fall together as it seems they should. Elder Bednar said, “Individual willpower, personal determination and motivation, effective planning and goal setting are necessary but ultimately insufficient for us to triumphantly complete this mortal journey. Truly, we must come to rely upon “the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah” (2 Nephi 2:8). Elder Bednar also recounts the story of some Mormon pioneers who had nothing left to eat but the raw hides of starved cattle. They tried eating it, but it made everyone sick. Still, they prayed for a solution and one young man, Daniel W. Jones, was inspired with instruction from the Lord on how to cook it so that it would be edible and not make everyone sick. He followed the Lord's instruction carefully, later recording that, “We asked the Lord to bless our stomachs and adapt them to this food...On eating now all seemed to relish the feast.” They ate this for six weeks thereafter, enjoyably! This story brought to memory a comment made by Elder Hinds, a missionary from my church. He said that our bodies are not our own. They are tools given to us by the Lord. How often have I felt as though my spirit was a slave to this mortal body? Subject to its whims of desires, appetites, and fatigue? Have I ever prayed for the Lord to adapt my body so that I can better use it as a tool for serving the Lord on this earth? What great faith! I am excited to go forward with this new understanding and make sure that I make time daily (and at times even hourly!) to pray with faith for the enabling and strengthening power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.