How Do We Receive the Lord’s Rest?

Alma teaches how we can prepare to enter into the rest of the Lord.

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woman praying

The Savior invited all people:

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; … and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30).

In related teachings in Alma 13, Alma spoke of those “who were made pure and entered into the rest of the Lord” (verse 12). Then he made this invitation: “I would that ye should humble yourselves before God, and bring forth fruit meet for repentance, that ye may also enter into that rest” (verse 13).

When we forsake our sins and repent, we can be filled with peace and have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. In verses 28 and 29, Alma lists ways we can prepare ourselves to enter into God’s rest:

Humble ourselves before the Lord.
Call on His holy name.
Watch and pray always to resist temptation and to be led by the Spirit.
Have faith in the Lord.
Have hope that we will receive eternal life.
Have the love of God always in our hearts.

President Russell M. Nelson taught that by living the higher laws of Jesus Christ, we can find rest, relief, and peace—not just in eternity but in our lives now. He explained:

“Covenant keepers are entitled to a special kind of rest that comes to them through their covenantal relationship with God. …

“As we strive to live the higher laws of Jesus Christ, our hearts and our very natures begin to change. The Savior lifts us above the pull of this fallen world by blessing us with greater charity, humility, generosity, kindness, self-discipline, peace, and rest.

“Now, you may be thinking this sounds more like hard spiritual work than rest. But here is the grand truth: while the world insists that power, possessions, popularity, and pleasures of the flesh bring happiness, they do not! They cannot! What they do produce is nothing but a hollow substitute for ‘the blessed and happy state of those [who] keep the commandments of God’ [Mosiah 2:41].

“The truth is that it is much more exhausting to seek happiness where you can never find it!”¹