Jesus Christ’s Sacrifice Was and Is for You

Dear Sisters, I’m always grateful to be with you. Whether in-person or in spirit, your faithfulness and goodness touches and inspires me. Bless you for bringing the Savior’s love and relief to those around you. We love you, and we pray for you.

Several years ago, I visited a nursery class. The nursery leader was gone that day, and I realized there wasn’t a lesson prepared. I looked in the cupboard and found a lesson book and chose a lesson on God’s love. It had a picture of children from all around the world representing God’s love for everyone. I asked the little nursery class how God’s love can reach all of them. One of the spirited little boys named Charlie held up his arms and exclaimed, “God’s love is BIG!” So true, Charlie. God’s love is indeed “big.” His love “reaches [our] reaching” and is constant for each of His children. No one is an exception to His love. As the Apostle Paul taught:

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

“Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

God’s great love is manifest through the merciful gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. Our covenants connect us to Him and His Atoning power. Because of Him, we can repent and change. Because of Him, we can receive strength and capacity beyond our own. Because of Him, we can find divine peace and the assurance that “all will be made right.”

Jesus Christ came to help lift our burdens and carry what we cannot and were not meant to carry on our own. Let me share a personal example.

Some time ago, I found myself in a trying circumstance that left me feeling unsettled and not valued. The situation began to consume my thoughts and my energies. I wondered why it bothered me so deeply. I tried to be helpful, kind, and clear, but nothing seemed to change. I felt stuck and desperately longed for relief and peace.

In the midst of my turmoil, I knelt beside my bed one evening and began to pray to my Father in Heaven. I just couldn’t do it anymore. I broke down in tears and said, “I can’t carry this anymore, it’s too much, this one has to be Yours. Will You take it, please? I give this to you. Please, help me.” I asked for help through the mercy of His Son. I remembered in that moment that Jesus Christ suffered for me and bore my griefs, and that through Him, this burden could be lifted. I felt a sudden hope, similar to the experience of Alma the younger, who, remembering the power of the Savior’s Atonement, said, “As my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness.”

The next day, a peace began to replace the heaviness. A peace that truly surpassed my understanding. A peace that this situation was in the hands of the Father and the Son and was not mine to carry. As I chose to trust my burden to Them, I felt Their love and relief and was guided to know how to get the support I needed.

A greater perspective also entered into my heart and mind in the days and the weeks following. I didn’t realize that a perspective closer to how God sees could be such a powerful gift in overcoming the trials we face. It helped to put this situation into its proper place. It became as the Lord described “but [a] drop” compared to the “more weighty matters.”

The difficult circumstance did not go away, but it did not afflict me in the same way as it had before, and the situation no longer monopolized my thoughts. It truly was a miracle. Only He could make this type of soul-vexing burden become “light.”

In the midst of receiving this relief, I read this scripture from the prophet Zenos, which describes my experience: “And thou didst hear me because of mine afflictions and my sincerity; and it is because of thy Son that thou hast been … merciful unto me, therefore I will cry unto thee in all mine afflictions, for in thee is my joy; for thou hast turned away thy judgments away from me, because of thy Son.”

Sisters, let us choose to believe in Jesus Christ and ask for the help we need through the power of His Atonement. At times we may find ourselves on “automatic” mode where we generally believe God will help us, but we do not deliberately ask Him in faith, choosing to believe He really can and will help us. I think our Father in Heaven hopes you and I will ask for the help we need in sincerity of heart and with faith that Jesus Christ’s sacrifice was and is for YOU. His Atonement, His suffering sore, were and are for you. He loves you and desires to heal and bless you with the help you need, now and forever. And He has the power to do so as we exercise our faith, live our covenants, and choose to believe in Him.

President Dallin H. Oaks taught: “Because of His atoning experience in mortality, our Savior is able to comfort, heal, and strengthen all men and women everywhere, but I believe He does so only for those who seek Him and ask for His help. … We qualify for that blessing when we believe in Him and pray for His help.”

We were not meant to pass through our challenges and heartaches on our own. We were meant to have a Savior, One whose divine power, love, and relief is personal. He desires to satisfy and soothe the aching soul.

Can you hear Him speaking to you as He spoke to the people of Alma in their afflictions?

“Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.

“And I will also ease the burdens which are … upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as a witness for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.”

The title of the painting I shared in my last General Conference message is “And I Partook.” It comes from the Savior’s own words in Doctrine and Covenants as He describes His agony in Gethsemane:

“Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore. …

“Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.”

The Savior partook so we could repent and be cleansed. He partook so we could be strengthened, succored, and healed. He partook to lift our burdens and give us peace. He partook so we could return to the presence of the Father and live with those we love forever. He partook out of love for you and me.

The meaning of this painting has changed over time because I have changed. My relationship and understanding of my Savior and what He has done for me deepens.

How we see Him in our lives will change as we choose to believe in Him, learn of Him, repent, and let the reality of His Atonement reach into all parts of our lives.

I know our Heavenly Father and Savior love you. I know Jesus Christ lives; He is the Redeemer of the world. His Atonement is for you. May we ask in faith for what we need and then “stand still [to] see the salvation of our God” is my prayer. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.