For the Power Is in Us: The Lord Loves Effort
2024 BYU Women’s Conference
Friday, May 3, 2024
President Susan H. Porter: What a blessing it is to be here with each of you today! This is Friday afternoon of a two-and-a-half-day conference. How are you doing? I am sure you feel filled to the top with the messages you’ve heard and the spirit you’ve felt. So we hope you have a little room still for further revelation, for whatever the Lord wants to send you.
I love being in gatherings of women. I love the strength that I feel from each of you with your consecrated hearts. Whenever I am with a gathering of women such as this, I am reminded of the great prophecy that President Spencer W. Kimball gave years ago to the women of the Church. In his prophecy, one thing he mentioned was that the “female exemplars of the Church will be a significant force in the both the numerical and the spiritual growth of the Church in the last days.” Sisters, this is us. We have a great work to do!
Our title today has two parts: “The Power Is in Us” and “The Lord Loves Effort.” Sister Spannaus has just shared with us in a beautiful way her journey with infertility and the effort she took to come to know God through that journey. I’m going to share a few thoughts with you about the first part of our title, which is “The Power Is in Us.”
In Doctrine and Covenants 58:27–28, the Lord revealed His will for all of us:
“Verily I say, [we] should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of [our] own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; For the power is in [us].”
Or, in other words, His power, God’s power, can be in us.
Sisters, we can be “anxiously engaged in a good cause.” But anxiously engaged does not mean being anxious! The only ones who should be anxious at this moment are Sister Spannaus and me, because we both spoke in general conference in April and then immediately needed to prepare remarks for today! However, I’m noticing that Sister Spannaus looks pretty relaxed right now.
Being anxiously engaged may not be about being anxious, but it is about moving forward, placing our confidence in the Lord and in His power to bless us.
Perhaps you feel the phrase “bring to pass much righteousness” could not possibly apply to you because you think your sphere of influence is small. But I hope you come to know deep in your soul that you can bring to pass much righteousness as you help even one person feel God’s love for them. You are needed and invited to assist in Heavenly Father’s great work of bringing “to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” You can gather souls to the Savior, one precious soul at a time.
Let’s consider two questions: How can we receive more of God’s power, and how can we use this sacred power to bring to pass much righteousness?
As I have pondered on what this looks like for us as women of God, I have pictured in my mind the vast congregation of the righteous spirits in the spirit world who awaited the Savior’s visit while His body lay in the tomb. President Joseph F. Smith recorded that “among the great and mighty ones who were assembled in this vast congregation of the righteous were Father Adam, the Ancient of Days and father of all, and our glorious Mother Eve, with many of her faithful daughters who had lived through the ages and worshiped the true and living God.”
As I thought about the “faithful daughters [our foremothers] who had lived through the ages,” many examples of women in the scriptures came to mind. I made a long list, but for this talk today, I had to shorten it so that you could get to your next class on time!
As we consider each one, I invite you to reflect on what power was given to them to bring forth much righteousness and ask yourself how you have felt that power in your own life or others you know.
First, Mother Eve. Eve acted with the power to choose. When President Russell M. Nelson spoke of Eve he said, and President Johnson quoted this this morning, “With her far-reaching vision of our Heavenly Father’s plan, [she] initiated what we call ‘the Fall.’”
Ruth acted with the power to stay. After her husband died, the easy choice would have been to return to her own people, but she chose to stay with her mother-in-law, Naomi, and move to Bethlehem, staying with a covenant people.
Remember the widow of Zarephath who was gathering sticks to prepare a last meal for her and her son during a famine? She had the power to act in faith when she took her last bit of flour and oil and made a cake for the prophet Elijah. He promised that if she did, “the barrel of meal [would] not waste, neither [would] the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord [would send] rain upon the earth.”
Hannah acted with the power to pray. Hannah was filled with sorrow as she had no children. She pled with the Lord in the temple for the righteous desires of her heart. Then, as she had promised the Lord, Hannah brought Samuel, the son who was born to her, to the temple to serve.
Think of the power that gave Esther the strength to put her trust in the living God, as she invited her people to fast and pray for her for three days and then entered the king’s chamber without an invitation. Her trust brought to pass much righteousness as it saved her people from destruction.
In the New Testament, we look to Mary, who accepted the Lord’s will, not as a passive observer but as one who moved forward with the power that comes from faith to bear and raise God’s Only Begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Later, Mary, who was expecting Jesus, went to visit her cousin Elisabeth, who was expecting John. Upon seeing Mary, Elisabeth was “filled with the Holy Ghost” and spoke with a loud voice, “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” Mary responded with the beautiful words “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.” Both women spoke with the power of the Holy Ghost.
After the Savior taught the Samaritan woman at the well, she believed He was the Christ and testified to those in her village with such power that many believed on her words.
Think of Sariah in the Book of Mormon, who had the power to change and then endure. She questioned Lehi’s vision when her sons didn’t return from Jerusalem with the brass plates in the expected time. Upon their return she received her own witness of the Lord’s desire for their family to flee into the wilderness. She then traveled in that wilderness for over seven years, enduring hunger and fatigue, eating raw meat, and bearing two children in her older years. She faced difficult family challenges and sorrowed for the choices of some of her children.
The mothers of the stripling warriors had the power to teach so that their messages sunk deep into the hearts of their sons.
Sarah, with her husband, Abraham, had power given her to “hope against hope” when she was promised a large posterity but had no children. Her hope was not a wish but faith in the Lord, who had made the promise. The Lord fulfilled His promise to her and filled her with the power to bear a child when she was 90 years old.
Finally, Emma, the wife of the Prophet Joseph Smith, was given invitations and the power to do many things, including expounding the scriptures, exhorting the Church, learning much, and laying aside the things of this world, and she was invited to hold fast to the covenants she had made.
Sisters, look at this beautiful list of power that can be given to us from God, our Heavenly Father, to act, to bring to pass much righteousness. We can do the same.
Having considered women who acted with the power of God in them, let’s explore how we can receive more of God’s power in our lives to do the things we need to do.
In the past few years, we have learned much about the power of God we can receive from “holding fast to the covenants” we have made in the waters of baptism and in holy temples.
Sister J. Anette Dennis testified last month in general conference: “Through honoring our covenants, we enable God to pour out the multitude of promised blessings associated with those covenants, including increased power to change and become more like our Savior.”
I would like to share with you the experiences of two women, who, like the women in the scriptures we have considered, faced daunting challenges in their lives. But through their prayerful efforts to honor their covenants, they received not only the power to act but “a multitude of blessings.”
First, my sister-in-law, Bryna, who faced a roadblock while acting on an impression.
Bryna: When my last child went to high school, I turned to Heavenly Father to ask Him, “What’s my next step?” He let me know He wanted me to become a lawyer, which really surprised me because I knew nothing about the law. But I moved ahead, and I applied to law school, and I got in.
During my first year, I was in a class, and my professor went out of his way to embarrass me and humiliate me and put me on the spot. I was devastated. I walked out of the class and stood on a little breezeway overlooking the city traffic. I felt hopeless and discouraged, and in my mind I thought to myself, “I can’t do this. I’m not smart enough.” And as I stood there, I prayed to Heavenly Father, and the Spirit came to me and filled me with hope and filled me with vision and possibilities. I was encouraged. I had been faithful to Heavenly Father, and He filled me with His power. So I went back to class, and I stayed in law school. I studied hard, and I made the dean’s list. I graduated from law school and took the bar exam, and I passed. I recently retired from a 15-year career as a public defender, which is about as Christlike of work as I can imagine. I testify to you that as we keep our covenants with Heavenly Father, He will empower us to succeed.
President Porter: Sometimes we may think that if the Lord asks us to do something, it will be an easy path. But we know from Eve, Sarah, Sariah, and others that we will have to continually rely on the power of God to help us accomplish what He asks. Bryna’s humble, heartfelt prayer on a street corner was a turning point in her life.
Next, my friend Paula experienced many of the challenges that Sariah faced with a sudden change in circumstances, health, and family situation.
Paula: A few years ago, I was diagnosed with cancer, and I thought that was bad enough. But pretty soon I was shocked to find myself in the middle of a betrayal and a really horrifying divorce. Suddenly, my health and my self-worth and my family and my finances all were just decimated one after another in what felt like to me a series of nuclear blasts. I have children, and I knew the stakes were too high for me to trust this to anyone except the Lord. So I had to lean really hard on my covenants. I had to work to widen the road in my relationship with my Heavenly Father. God keeps His covenants too. As I followed His instructions, one step at a time, He sent miracles and angels and helped me survive one more day and then one more day and then one more day until I could stand on my own.
At the end of the trial, it is really tempting for us to wonder if maybe we did it on our own secretly, but I don’t have that luxury. I know I was in so far over my head that I could not have survived on my own. I learned through all of this that in partnering with the Lord, I actually could move mountains. I know it’s true because I’m sitting here, and that’s proof that God helped me move one.
President Porter: Paula said that because she had children who were in the middle of these trials, she couldn’t trust herself to anyone but the Savior. To meet her challenges, she needed to “widen the road” in her relationship with her Heavenly Father. She turned to Him and followed promptings, one day at a time. She partnered with the Lord, and He helped her move a mountain.
Consider how President Nelson’s teachings were fulfilled in Paula’s and Bryna’s lives. He taught: “The reward for keeping covenants with God is heavenly power—power that strengthens us to withstand our trials, temptations, and heartaches better. … Those who live the higher laws of Jesus Christ have access to His higher power.”
As I have reflected on the examples of Bryna, Paula, and women in the scriptures who have acted with the power of God in them, I have thought about the power of hope in our lives—not wishful thinking but hope centered in the Lord Jesus Christ. Through our hope in Christ, we can act with the power to choose, testify, stay, trust, accept the Lord’s will, and change and endure.
Years ago, I had an experience with hope that helped me recognize that our Heavenly Father and His Son are the true source of hope. It is Their power, not ours.
When my husband, Bruce, was 44, his kidneys failed. After two unsuccessful transplants, he needed to receive dialysis treatments several times a week for many years. One day, after staying with my husband for an hour while he received dialysis, I drove home to take care of my children. While I was driving, words came clearly to my mind: “All now rejoice; the long night is o’er.” I knew those words came from a hymn, but I didn’t know which one. So I went home and looked it up and found those beautiful words: “All now rejoice; the long night is o’er.” I was overjoyed! We had been praying for years that Bruce’s kidneys would be healed, because there was nothing more that doctors could do.
The impression was so strong that I expected to receive a call any minute to come pick my husband up from the dialysis center because he didn’t need dialysis anymore! When no phone call came, I thought maybe he would be healed that night because it said, “All now rejoice; the long night is over.” Each day I awaited with eager anticipation the healing of his kidneys. As the days, weeks, months, and years went by, the memory of those words was so clear in my mind that I felt to rejoice as I waited. The timing didn’t really matter. I felt hope in Christ! I knew what I had heard in my mind.
As the years went by, it seemed his health was getting worse, and he went through several surgeries. Friends often asked me why I seemed so calm when things looked worse not better. I simply replied that I knew that everything would work out. Eight years after that prompting, through some new medical developments, Bruce was able to receive a kidney transplant from our son David that restored his health.
The long night was over as we were able to accept an assignment to serve in Russia for the Church. We enjoyed a glorious two and a half years serving the members of that great land.
I had felt the power of hope. It sustained me and still sustains me, as there are more covenant blessings that await me and my family in the eternities. There are more blessings that await you and your family now and in the eternities.
I leave you with my witness that when we strive with all our hearts to keep the covenants we have made with Heavenly Father and His Son in the waters of baptism and in holy temples, we will receive the power we need to bring to pass much righteousness.
We will feel the power of God working in us as we do things we could never do on our own and will receive the joy of feeling ever closer to our wise, eternal Friend, He who has all power.
In the words of the hymn “How Firm a Foundation”:
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by my righteous, … omnipotent hand.
Of that I bear witness in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.