The Infinite Power of God in Our Covenants
Covenants with God stretch over all time and all space.
When I was a young teenager getting ready for school, my mother read to me from the Book of Mormon every day, out loud, whether I was listening or not.
So, you might assume that I was raised in a family that belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But I was not. My family were members of a different church that also believes in the Book of Mormon and the prophetic mission of Joseph Smith. I am deeply grateful for that heritage, a heritage that began with my third-great-grandparents Francis and Mary Ann Case, who were baptized by Oliver Cowdery in 1831 and helped establish Nauvoo and build the house of the Lord.
They did not travel west with the Saints; nevertheless, I was raised with a knowledge and testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith. My mother actually gave me my middle name, Joseph, after the Prophet of the Restoration. And she gave me much more than that. She taught me about the restored gospel and the Book of Mormon.
There are only two things I remember from that reading of the Book of Mormon by my mother: “and it came to pass” and “wars and rumors of wars.” That’s it.
But more than any words that I heard or did not hear, I knew the Book of Mormon was important to my mother. And I knew she knew it was true. Even as a single mother, she made the extraordinary effort to read the Book of Mormon to me every day until it was finished. As she did, she was fulfilling the admonition of the Lord, who said, “Remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon.”
The lesson I learned is this: No time or effort is ever wasted in reading the Book of Mormon. Not for you, not for your children, not for your family, not for anyone.
Because of my mother’s extraordinary efforts, I knew the Book of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. Even so, I was confused and uncertain as to where the true Church of Jesus Christ was. When I was 14, I began to question the church of my childhood. I knew members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; they were my friends.
All of this led me to sincerely seek the truth. So, for two months I attended both my family’s congregation, and secretly—hiding between the accordion doors of the overflow—I attended a congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I can’t fully express the gratitude I have for my upbringing and the knowledge I had received; even so, I came to know that this is the Lord’s Church.
It would be some time before I could join the Church, and though I would face questions and disappointment from my family, I had been given a gift—a testimony. And in the words of the Prophet Joseph Smith, “I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it.”
I was retelling this experience and pondering how a young boy such as me would have an interest in religion. There were many good influences in my life, to be sure, but that did not seem to explain it all. While I was musing out loud about this topic, my wife, Rebecca, said, “I know what it was! It was covenants.”
You see, while my ancestors were united with the Saints in Nauvoo, they had made covenants in the temple. Rebecca then read some of the beautiful and comforting prophetic teachings on this topic, which provide that because of “the eternal sealings of faithful parents and the divine promises made to them[,] … though some of the sheep may wander, the eye of the Shepherd is upon them, and sooner or later they will feel the tentacles of Divine Providence reaching out after them and drawing them back to the fold.”
It was covenants; I felt it in that moment. And in these words, we begin to feel a sense of the awesome power of God in our covenants.
President Dallin H. Oaks has said that covenants “do not ‘take a day off.’”
Though the covenant faithfulness of parents and grandparents does not alter the agency of children or grandchildren, there is a discernible impact of those covenants on all our posterity.
It was covenants that had impacted me, not my covenants but the covenants of those who came before me. The power of God in those covenants reached out after me. As Elder Patrick Kearon has taught, “He employs every possible measure to bring [us] back.”
It is exactly how the Lord revealed it to the Prophet Joseph Smith: “And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers.”
We can see this promise being fulfilled in our day. In the Book of Mormon, the Lord made a covenant with Enos that the remnant of the people living at that time would someday receive his words and the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Was there a time limit to that covenant? That covenant would take more than 2,000 years to be fulfilled. So, no, there is no limit to the power of God in our covenants.
Covenants with God are filled with incalculable power. They do not bless just the maker of the covenant but are generational in their impact. We are all the intended beneficiaries of countless covenants! Like the great binding power of gravity that stretches across the universe, covenants with God stretch over all time and all space.
If you are wondering whether you or a loved one has wandered so far away that the love of God and His covenantal power cannot reach you—I say to you, you have not. As President Jeffrey R. Holland so beautifully said: “You have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines.”
The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the greatest promise God made—that Jesus Christ would be our Savior and Redeemer. The power and reach of that covenant is infinite and eternal.
Some may be crying out right now, with words like “O, God, where art Thou? My child is struggling.” Take comfort; God hears you and will answer your prayers in His own time and in His own way. Keep your covenants, strive to be faithful, and “cheerfully do all things that lie in [your] power; and then may [you] stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.”
I testify that the infinite power of God is in our covenants. Don’t ever give up. Your story, your family’s story, is not all written. God is the author and the finisher of it. I am a standing, breathing, believing demonstration of God’s love and the power of God in covenants. Blessed be the name of the Lord, of whom I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.