“Why I Need Jesus Christ,” For the Strength of Youth, Mar. 2024.
Strength in Your Relationship with Him
Why I Need Jesus Christ
Understanding our relationship with the Savior is essential.
The Master’s Touch, by Kelsy and Jesse Lightweave
“Why do I need Jesus Christ?” It’s a significant question to ask yourself—not the collective “all” or your family’s “we.” But, really, “I.” What’s my answer to that question?
The answer I found for myself came through personal acts of faith; daily striving to live my covenants, including my baptismal covenant; and learning to listen to the voice of the Lord through His Spirit. And most important, it centered on my relationship with my Savior.
A Relationship with the Savior
I can confidently list reasons I need my parents or my closest friends. I’ve nourished those relationships regularly. Their value in my life is as visible and solid as the time and effort I put into being close to them through simple things like regular conversations, getting to know them, and allowing their righteous wisdom to influence my life.
Our relationship with Jesus Christ can follow a similar pattern. Daily prayer to Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ is necessary. So is getting to know the Savior by searching the scriptures, reading the words of prophets and apostles, and listening to the Spirit. I deepen that relationship as I allow all that I am learning to influence my life and my character.
Also, consider the plan of salvation. That title, “plan of salvation,” implies that you and I—all people—need saving and that salvation was part of the design for this life. We needed help and could not save ourselves.
But God sent us to earth with an everlasting promise that He would provide a Savior, Jesus Christ, who would overcome the obstacles that separate us from God’s presence.1 And when we make a covenant with God, He promises to do everything He can, without taking away our ability to choose, to help us keep our sacred promises to Him.2
Photograph courtesy of Tracy Y. Browning
I Needed to Know He Understood
I was baptized when I was 16 and living in New York City. At first I felt like I was spending a lot of time navigating between my newfound faith, with its covenant relationship with God, and my relationships with friends.
I was worried about not having friends at school I could connect with. But my friends were used to doing things that I came to realize were harmful to my spirit and were not in keeping with taking upon myself the name of Jesus Christ. I knew that Jesus Christ wanted me to make better choices.
What I didn’t know was whether the Savior understood how conflicted I was feeling. Each day got more difficult as I was invited to do things that I knew weren’t good. I sometimes justified them as harmless, but I knew I was compromising things I shouldn’t.
I needed to know that the Savior understood how lonely and guilty I felt when I would even consider lowering gospel standards so that I could feel a sense of belonging with my friends. I felt like I was drowning. I needed rescuing. I needed Jesus Christ.
When My Relationship with Him Deepened
My relationship with Jesus Christ deepened when I found out for myself why I needed Him. It was when I started moving from only knowing that I should live the gospel to understanding why I wanted to live the gospel and asking for help to do it. I simply got on my knees and poured out my heart to God, with hope that He cared about me and my problem, that the plan of salvation was designed to help me, that even my happiness was part of the plan.
President Russell M. Nelson has taught, “Once you and I have made a covenant with God, our relationship with Him becomes much closer than before our covenant. … Because of our covenant with God, He will never tire in His efforts to help us, and we will never exhaust His merciful patience with us.”3
I talked to Heavenly Father about how guilty I was feeling, how I didn’t know what to do to keep both my standards and my friends. I told Him I was feeling unhappy and could really use His help.
It was on my knees that I started to experience peace. This peaceful feeling helped me understand that the Savior did know how I was feeling and that He does care—quite a lot, actually.
As I’ve grown older and gained more perspective, I recognize that each time I come to God pleading for help or forgiveness, I seem to be figuratively transported to the Garden of Gethsemane, where our Savior trembled in pain and began to suffer in both body and spirit for the mistakes and sins that separate us from God.4 It’s a reminder that He understands what I’m going through—better than anyone else ever could.
In Humility, Our Savior, by Jay Bryant Ward
Not Alone
When I got off my knees, the Spirit helped me discern some things and inspired me to do other things. First, I remembered that one of my friends was Muslim and was never asked to compromise her standards because we respected her faith and understood there were certain things she wouldn’t do. I felt inspired to share my new faith with my friends so that they too could understand more about me and why my new standards were important to me.
I started out small. I told one friend how I had been struggling. She was kind and respectful. She helped me as I talked with my other friends. Not everyone understood, but over time, I saw that they made plans that I could participate in that did not violate my promises to God.
I know that we could all use more strength to resist the constant influence of the world. Keeping covenants helps with that, and Jesus Christ is at the center of our covenants.5 This is what I found out for myself—why I need Jesus Christ.
Getting home to God is not something I can do by myself. And there are lots of daily small steps and everyday experiences that I—and all of us—will make on that journey home. But how blessed we are as covenant makers and covenant keepers that God “will never tire in His efforts to help us” till we get there.