“Access His Strength—Now and Always,” For the Strength of Youth, Mar. 2024.
Strength at All Times
Access His Strength—Now and Always
You are worthy of Jesus Christ’s strength and help.
Illustrations by Alex Nabaum
Imagine strolling through the forest and coming across a young boy who had tripped and landed all tangled up in dead branches. One of the branches is too heavy for him to lift off alone.
Do you help? Or do you first sit down and determine if he even deserves your help?
Of course you help! The idea of withholding your assistance until the boy has earned it might even sound absurd to you. And yet we think this way about ourselves—except, in this case, we’re the child in need.
You Are Worth Saving
No matter your age, you’re a child compared to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. (You are, in fact, a literal child of Heavenly Father.) And your strength—physical, emotional, spiritual, or mental—is nothing compared to Theirs. Most of us understand that concept well enough. But when we stumble for whatever reason, all too often we feel we can’t reach out for help until we’ve earned it. That’s simply not true.
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, then–Second Counselor in the First Presidency, once spoke about the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15.
“Does the sheep need to know how to use a complicated sextant to calculate its coordinates?” he asked. “Does it need to be able to use a GPS to define its position? Does it have to have the expertise to create an app that will call for help? Does the sheep need endorsements by a sponsor before the Good Shepherd will come to the rescue?
“No. Certainly not! The sheep is worthy of divine rescue simply because it is loved by the Good Shepherd.
“To me, the parable of the lost sheep is one of the most hopeful passages in all of scripture.”1
Each of us can become lost for many different reasons. And for each of us, divine help may already be seeking us out.
Help Is Always Available
Help is available to us not only when we sin, but also when we’re living the very best we can. Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught:
“I wonder if we fail to fully acknowledge this strengthening aspect of the Atonement in our lives and mistakenly believe we must carry our load all alone—through sheer grit, willpower, and discipline and with our obviously limited capacities.
“It is one thing to know that Jesus Christ came to the earth to die for us. But we also need to appreciate that the Lord desires, through His Atonement and by the power of the Holy Ghost, to enliven us—not only to guide but also to strengthen and heal us.”2
You are worthy of His help! No matter the path you’ve walked recently, Jesus Christ stands ready to walk the next stretch with you.