“Finding Relief in Our Covenant Relationship with God,” Liahona, Sept. 2024.
Finding Relief in Our Covenant Relationship with God
Jesus Christ is the source of pure love, healing, happiness, and relief.
Detail from He Comes Again to Rule and Reign, by Mary R. Sauer
Finding relief through our covenant relationship with God has been on my mind and heart for some time. As the prophet of the Lord has taught and exhorted us to learn about covenants, temples, and priesthood power, I’ve found myself searching, loving, and feasting upon the rejuvenating truths encapsulated in covenants.
We were meant to partner with the Lord in a powerful way through our covenants. He desires to be with us in our concerns and our decisions. We need not navigate the challenges, sorrows, insecurities, and heartaches of life alone. He will be beside us. He has said: “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (John 14:18).
President Russell M. Nelson described the character of God and His great love for us when he taught that “the covenant path is all about our relationship with God.” He said: “Once you and I have made a covenant with God, our relationship with Him becomes much closer than before our covenant. Now we are bound together. 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. Each of us has a special place in God’s heart. He has high hopes for us.”
My Greatest Source of Peace
As a sister who has not yet married, this loving and merciful covenant relationship with my Father in Heaven and Savior has a powerful place in my life and has been and is my greatest source of relief and peace. No matter our marital status or background, the Lord desires us to partner with Him in a powerful way—to be “one” (3 Nephi 19:23) with Him in “all [our] doings” (Alma 37:37). As we cry unto the Lord for our support, and “let the affections of [our] heart[s] be placed upon [Him] forever” (Alma 37:36; emphasis added), our lives can be filled by this beautiful covenant bond.
Through our Savior, Jesus Christ, we can receive relief from navigating the challenges of life alone.
We all have concerns and needs that we can feel alone in. He cares about our concerns no matter how great or small. I have felt the need for His help when worrying about seemingly small things like the ever-present friend I call “house repairs.” Without a spouse to consult with, I can worry alone about the right contractor, fair costs, taking time away from work to be home, and being a good steward over my finances and home. It was a triumph the other day to get my garage door fixed! The Lord heard my concern. And though small in the grand scheme of things, He answered my prayer. How? Through a kind neighbor, the help of the Spirit, and a video on YouTube, I was blessed to know what to do to fix the door.
If the Lord is attentive to the small needs, imagine His desire to bless and sustain us in the weightier matters of the heart and soul, which are not few in number: abuse, addiction, difficult family relationships, loss and disappointment, ongoing mental and physical health challenges, financial distress, constant concern as a parent, constant concern in caring for a parent, struggles with personal faith, a child or spouse who chooses not to participate in the gospel.
During the intensities and infirmities of life, I’ve leaned heavily upon and held closely to my covenant relationship with God. As I’ve trusted in His loving care and tried my best to consecrate my life to Him, He has provided relief through His priesthood power and has been my Provider in my spiritual and temporal needs. He has provided relief from fear, relief from insecurities, relief from pride, relief from sin, relief from loneliness, relief from sorrow.
President Nelson taught with clarity and assurance that “the reward for keeping covenants with God is heavenly power—power that strengthens us to withstand our trials, temptations, and heartaches better.”
Through Jesus Christ, we can receive relief from navigating the challenges of life alone.
Sister Yee with two sisters in Micronesia who are raising children abandoned by parents.
Sisters “upon the Isles of the Sea”
As I’ve been reflecting on the blessings of the covenant bond we have with God, I thought about my assignment to visit the Asia North Area.
I had the privilege of traveling to the small islands of Chuuk in Micronesia, about 1,500 miles (2,400 km) southeast of Japan. Two of the sisters on Weno, Chuuk, have given their lives to raise children who have been abandoned by their parents. These two sisters felt it was important to raise these children in the gospel. One of these sisters is single and working full-time as a school counselor.
I shared with them President Nelson’s message to the sisters of the Church, which is that you sisters are loved, necessary, and precious.
The beautiful single sister who is raising her nieces and nephews broke down in tears and said she had not felt precious lately; she had felt forgotten. But she testified she felt of God’s love and awareness for her in the prophet’s words that she was indeed “precious,” and she knew it was true. She felt God’s healing love; she felt relief.
The Lord has said, “Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea?” (2 Nephi 29:7).
These sisters are known to their Heavenly Father and Savior. They are not alone. And neither are you and I in our trials and challenges. The Lord sent me roughly 8,500 miles (13,700 km) by plane, train, car, and boat to bring God’s love and relief to “the one” on the isles of the sea. And so He will find you and me on our personal islands where we might feel alone in the concerns and the burdens we carry in our hearts. He is present and prepared to bless, guide, and comfort us.
“I Can Come to You”
President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008) once described the experience of a young divorced “mother of seven children then ranging in ages from 7 to 16. She said that one evening she went across the street to deliver something to a neighbor.” These are her words as he recalled them:
“As I turned around to walk back home, I could see my house lighted up. I could hear echoes of my children as I had walked out of the door a few minutes earlier. They were saying: ‘Mom, what are we going to have for dinner?’ ‘Can you take me to the library?’ ‘I have to get some poster paper tonight.’ Tired and weary, I looked at that house and saw the light on in each of the rooms. I thought of all of those children who were home waiting for me to come and meet their needs. My burdens felt heavier than I could bear.
“I remember looking through tears toward the sky, and I said, ‘Dear Father, I just can’t do it tonight. I’m too tired. I can’t face it. I can’t go home and take care of all those children alone. Could I just come to You and stay with You for just one night? …’
“I didn’t really hear the words of reply, but I heard them in my mind. The answer was: ‘No, little one, you can’t come to me now. … But I can come to you.’”
“I can come to you.” He came to her, and He will come to you and me, just as the Savior came to the woman at the well where she labored and toiled through her days (see John 4:3–42). He encouraged her, taught her, declared His messiahship to her, and loved her when perhaps she didn’t love herself. To the woman at the well, to the young mother of seven, to you and me, Jesus Christ stands ready to provide relief. I testify that we can receive relief through our covenant bond with a loving God.
Perhaps like me, you have pleaded for help to not be left alone during some of the most emotionally, physically, and spiritually demanding seasons of your life. These intense seasons of growth have left what I call “spiritual stretch marks” on the soul. But I bear witness that He has carried me, and He will carry you. He has graven you upon the palms of His hands (see Isaiah 49:16; 1 Nephi 21:16). He has been there as you’ve sought “to be righteous in the dark.” He has not forsaken me, nor will He forsake you. And I will love Him forever for it.
Dear sisters and brothers, the source of pure love, healing, happiness, and relief has been found in Jesus Christ. I testify that Jesus Christ is relief.
He desires to care for you, to bless and forgive you. He came for this very purpose, to provide you with the much-needed relief that you seek. He is the Redeemer of the world, and I testify that He lives and that He loves you.
From a Brigham Young University Women’s Conference address delivered on May 3, 2023.