Becoming One with God through Your Covenants

2024 Worldwide Relief Society Devotional

Kristin M. Yee

Second Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Dear sisters, each of us has the opportunity to partner with the Lord in a powerful way through our covenants. As President Russell M. Nelson has taught, “The covenant path is all about our relationship with God”¹—a relationship with everlasting ties and essential blessings.

One of those blessings is the comforting and abiding partnership of our Savior Jesus Christ in “all [our] doings.”² We are never alone. We do not need to navigate the challenges, the uncertainties, and the weaknesses of life alone. He will be beside us; this is our covenant promise and blessing. He loves you and desires to be a part of your life, your concerns, your happiness, and your decisions. Jesus Christ desires to give you His relief.

As a sister who has not yet married, this covenant relationship with God has a profound place in my life and is the source of my peace, security, joy, and direction. Our Father in Heaven and Savior desire these blessings for each of us no matter our circumstance. They see you, and your path is known to Them.

Sometimes, at the end of the day, I want to talk to someone about a tender mercy from the Lord that I’ve witnessed or a difficult situation I’m struggling with. Sometimes the Lord mercifully sends friends, family, and others my way, and sometimes He impresses me to reach out to them. But many times, I have had the privilege and blessing of speaking to my Father in Heaven about my day and the feelings of my heart. Because of this, I’ve become better acquainted with God and better at counseling³ with Him. I feel a closeness and a constant love from Him. And in this relationship, I feel secure in His love and wisdom and in His perfect understanding of me and my needs. I have developed a deep love and gratitude for Him and His divine presence in my life. This partnership through our covenants is real. Jesus Christ lives. And He desires to succor⁴ you and offer His healing love and relief.⁵ We are never alone.

In 3 Nephi, the Savior prayed to the Father on behalf of the faithful, including you and me: “Father, I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me out of the world, because of their faith, that they may be purified in me, that I may be in them as thou, Father, art in me, that we may be one.”⁶

We were meant to become one with God through our covenants.⁷ When we choose to enter a covenant relationship with Him, we choose to change, to repent and try again, to become pure even as He is pure. This change is made possible through Jesus Christ and His Atonement. Living our covenants changes our natures to become as He is, bringing us closer and closer to becoming one⁸ through His Spirit.⁹ What a comfort and gift this is. As we develop our covenant relationship with God, all other relationships in our lives will be elevated.

We invite you to invest in this loving relationship by living your covenants, embracing time with our Savior Jesus Christ in His holy house, in prayer, in study, and in ministering as He would. And we invite you to learn all you can about accessing His covenant blessing of priesthood power.¹⁰

While on an assignment, a dear single sister asked a beautiful question about how to make a home a sacred place when you are single. We often talk about creating a home, but what does this look like?

I would like to share some of the truths that came to mind that apply to all of us no matter our circumstance:

• As daughters of God, we each belong to His loving eternal family. Though I’m not currently married, I don’t necessarily see myself as single. As daughters of God, there is much more to you and me than a marital status or demographic label.

  We have all come from an earthly home as well, hence we have a work to do to support and help our family, both immediate and extended and those beyond the veil. We each have an essential, nourishing role to play in an eternal chain of family ties. As covenant women of the Relief Society, we have the role of bringing the Savior’s relief to our families and to all of God’s children. We help bring them to Christ.

• We can create a “home” where the Spirit dwells and bring others into that sacred space to be loved and nourished. Your home, your apartment, your room carries the Spirit you bring into your life. We can create places of security and safety from the world,¹¹ where the things of eternity prevail and where rest is possible.¹² Each of us has the blessing and privilege of this stewardship, the stewardship of creating a “home” where Jesus Christ’s love and relief reside.

• We are always progressing. There is no waiting queue in this regard. No matter our marital status or background, if we are willing to follow the Savior, He will provide ample opportunities for us to learn and grow, to communicate and build relationships, to repent and forgive, to love and nurture, and to come unto Christ and be changed.

• Dear sisters, your influence is great, and your gifts are needed. Look at the lives of those around you and those whom the Lord has placed within your influence. For me, I feel to be a part of my nieces’ and nephews’ lives and to love them and help them to know who they really are as children of God. I also feel to encourage and love the youth and families in my neighborhood. And I feel drawn to help heal my family, past and present, through family history and temple work.¹³ We are nurturers to all within our sphere. What does your stewardship of influence look like? Who has Jesus Christ placed in your life that you can love and lift? To whom can you bring His relief?

I know that Jesus Christ lives and that He loves you. He will come again. He is the long-awaited Bridegroom,¹⁴ and we are the Ten Virgins, the covenant women of His Church. We have the blessing of filling our lamps with the beautiful oil of a covenant relationship with Christ. We don’t need to wait till He comes again to know Him;¹⁵ we can choose to know Him today and receive His healing love, power, and relief into our lives now through our covenants. And when He comes again, “we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is,”¹⁶ for we will be one with Him.

Notes

1. Russell M. Nelson, “The Everlasting Covenant,” Liahona, Oct. 2022, 11.

2. Alma 37:37.

3. See Alma 37:36–37

4. See Alma 7:11–12.

5. “I plead with you to come unto Him so that He can heal you! He will heal you from sin as you repent. He will heal you from sadness and fear. He will heal you from the wounds of this world” (Russell M. Nelson, “The Answer Is Always Jesus Christ,” Liahona, May 2023, 127).

6. 3 Nephi 19:29.

7. “Adam and Eve accepted the ordinance of baptism and began the process of being one with God. They had entered the covenant path” (Russell M. Nelson, “The Everlasting Covenant,” Liahona, Oct. 2022, 4).

8. See Russell M. Nelson, “The Everlasting Covenant,” 4–11.

9. See 1 John 3:23–24.

10. See Russell M. Nelson, “Spiritual Treasures,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2019, 76–79; “The Temple and Your Spiritual Foundation,” Liahona, Nov. 2021, 93–96; “Overcome the World and Find Rest,” Liahona, Nov. 2022, 95–98.

11. See Russell M. Nelson, “Embrace the Future with Faith,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2020, 73–76.

12. See Russell M. Nelson, “Overcome the World and Find Rest,” 95–98.

13. See Dale G. Renlund, “Family History and Temple Work: Sealing and Healing,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2018, 46–49.

14. See Matthew 25:1–13.

15. See Matthew 25:11–12.

16. Moroni 7:48.