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Jesus Christ Can Give Us Unique Help for Our Unique Struggles
I realized that Christ had more to offer me than I had previously understood.
When I was a teenager, I struggled with some sinful habits that bordered on addictive. The struggle went on for several years and affected the way I perceived myself and my relationships with others.
In church and at home, I heard often about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ’s perfect love for each of us, regardless of what we’ve done. This is a beautiful truth. But despite that knowledge, I still felt stuck in what seemed like a never-ending rut of sin and self-hatred that I couldn’t escape. I simply couldn’t find the strength to change.
It wasn’t until college that I started to really strengthen my testimony of Christ, and only then did I become personally acquainted with the aspect of His character and His Atonement that I needed: His enabling power.
I needed to know that Jesus Christ could change me. I’d proven countless times over the years that I didn’t have the power to change myself; only He could help me. And once I finally gained that testimony for myself, I found His help in ways I never could before.
Finding What I Needed
One Sunday as I took the sacrament, I pondered about the symbolism of the bread and water—which represent the body and blood of Christ—and the order in which we partake of them. It was significant to me that we are offered the bread (which reminds me of sustenance and strength) before being given the water (which makes me think of washing and cleansing). To me, this suggests that the Savior doesn’t wait to offer us strength until after we have repented and are made clean. Instead, His enabling power is available to us throughout the repentance process.
As Elder D. Todd Christofferson taught: “We do not need to achieve some minimum level of capacity or goodness before God will help—divine aid can be ours every hour of every day, no matter where we are in the path of obedience. But I know that beyond desiring His help, we must exert ourselves, repent, and choose God for Him to be able to act in our lives consistent with justice and moral agency.”1
This was a pivotal realization for me.
I had been trying and failing to overcome my bad habits on my own for years. So from that moment forward, I started viewing the sacrament as an opportunity to draw strength from the Savior every week, as well as a preparation to receive the cleansing, sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost.
My prayers started including pleas for increased ability to resist temptation, instead of just asking for forgiveness. I saw those prayers answered over time. My scripture study became less of an item to check off and more of an opportunity to hear the voice of the Lord. Going to church became more significant. The Spirit began to point out things I was doing or exposing myself to that, though not inherently sinful, were not contributing to my spiritual well-being, and I found the motivation to remove them from or limit them in my life.
As Christ enabled me to make these seemingly little adjustments, the Spirit’s influence on me grew, and with that growth came an increased ability to resist the temptations that had previously held me captive. The intervals between my moments of weakness gradually lengthened. I started noticing factors that left me vulnerable to temptation, and it grew easier to limit those factors. Instead of my bad habits being removed all at once, it was an incremental process of replacing that sin and evil with righteousness and good habits.
He Knows Our Needs
Through this process, I learned so much about how the Savior knows our needs and can provide us with unique help for the unique problems we have at certain times of life.
For example, when the woman caught in adultery faced death because of her sins, the Savior intervened and invited her to repent. He said, “Go, and sin no more” (John 8:11). When the widow of Nain lost her only son, she likely faced a life of poverty. The Savior saw her need and mercifully raised her son from the dead (see Luke 7:11–15).
When Moses died and Joshua faced the daunting responsibility of leading the children of Israel into the land of Canaan, the Lord commanded him to keep His commandments and then promised, “Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest” (Joshua 1:9; see also Joshua 1:1–8).
But to receive the Savior’s help with our unique needs requires the same thing of all of us—to turn to Him in faith.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught: “Whoever we are, and whatever our problems, his response is always the same, forever: ‘Come unto me.’ Come see what I do and how I spend my time. Learn of me, follow me, and in the process I will give you answers to your prayers and rest to your souls.”2
Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, which means He is the Savior of each of us—individually. As many trials that need help to be endured, as many lessons that need to be learned, as many souls that need to be healed, He is equipped to meet those needs.
But we must first make the effort to come to Him so that when those needs arise, we can allow Him to help us.
Coming unto Christ
I consider the lessons I learned about Christ’s tailored help as nothing short of miraculous. Every person needs something different from the Savior, whether it’s love or solutions to struggles we can’t solve on our own.
President Russell M. Nelson recently said:
“I plead with you to come unto Him so that He can heal you! He will heal you from sin as you repent. He will heal you from sadness and fear. He will heal you from the wounds of this world.
Whatever questions or problems you have, the answer is always found in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.”3
There is no substitute for a personal testimony of and relationship with Jesus Christ. It is through our relationship with Him that we come to know how He can help us individually. I testify of that with all my heart.