Digital Only: Answers from an Apostle
How Can I Draw Strength from the Savior’s Love?
Because of Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice, you can have help, hope, perspective, and a change of heart as you come unto Him.
From a BYU—Idaho devotional address given on April 27, 2025
On Holy Easter Sunday, we celebrate the most majestic expression of love the world has ever seen, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the spirit of extending this expression of love beyond a single day and into a season, I would like to highlight how profoundly blessed we can be by experiencing the love the Savior demonstrated through His infinite and majestic atoning sacrifice.
Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice was the ultimate and most glorious expression of love for all of God’s children. He suffered for all, thus becoming our ultimate spiritual Caregiver.
Help in Weakness
Beyond the matchless gift of salvation, the Savior extends His healing grace to us in moments of sorrow, trial, and weakness. Christ is ever aware of the adversities we experience in mortality. He understands all the bitterness, agony, and physical pain, as well as the emotional and spiritual challenges we face. The Savior is always ready to succor us in the quiet struggles of life.
He offers rest for the weary heart, strength for the tempted soul, and comfort for the broken spirit. This is possible because He personally experienced and took upon Himself in the flesh the pain of our weaknesses and infirmities (see Alma 7:11–12).
For all these reasons, the Savior can extend rest to us from our heavy burdens, healing our wounds and sorrows, and offering salvation and exaltation in the Lord’s Kingdom.
Hope
Another special blessing that comes from experiencing the Savior’s love in our lives is increasing our hope in Him and in the plan of redemption He offers us through his glorious atoning sacrifice. The hope the Savior offers is the light that guides us through darkness. It is the assurance that no matter how overwhelming or difficult our journey is, peace, healing and recovery are possible.
Perspective and Purpose
Through the experiences of mortality, God is shaping us into who He knows we can become. Trials can humble us, help us grow spiritually, and remind us that we need the Lord’s help. Trials can help us learn to appreciate times of peace. And most important, they give us opportunities to show the Lord and ourselves that we will be faithful.
Life would be easier without trials, of course. But we wouldn’t learn or grow much. When we remember this divine perspective, we can find comfort and renewed trust and strength in the Savior’s love to face life and its challenges.
Let us trust in the Savior to help us grow and find peace on our journey throughout life. In the same spirit, let’s trust in the Savior’s capacity to provide us as with an embrace and embrace the opportunities for growth that our mortal journey offers.
A Change of Heart
I believe that one of the most profound ways to draw strength from the Savior’s love as we face the complexities of the modern world is by accepting His invitation to come unto Him (see Matthew 11:28–29).
My dear friends, to truly come unto Jesus and turn to Him in every thought (see Doctrine and Covenants 6:36), we must begin by learning more about His life and the healing power He offers.
This will lead us to center our lives in Him. As Jesus Christ becomes the center of our lives, what we desire and how we desire it are forever altered. It brings about true spiritual transformation in our hearts, changing our nature so that we no longer have a disposition to do evil, but to strive to do good continually (see Mosiah 5:2).
He changes how we spend our time and resources, what we read, watch, listen to, and share. He even changes how we treat one another and how we respond to injustices.
Come unto Him
The path to understanding the Savior and His love is individual, with its own ups and downs. But this journey will ultimately lead us to purity, peace, perspective, and purpose in our lives.
He’ll take you the way you are, and as you come unto Him and learn of Him, you can and you will become ever more like Him. Never forget that we were all born with the seed of divinity in our spirits. Because we are spiritual children of God, this seed spiritually connects us to Deity. Through this connection, we can feel the love that emanates from God through His Son, Jesus Christ, and His compassionate Atonement.
I testify that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the world, the great Healer of our souls. I know that He lives and that His love is eternal and real. With His arms ever outstretched, He calls to each of us, saying, “Come unto me with a humble heart.”
As one called to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ on the earth, I pray that you may cast off all that hinders you from feeling the love of our Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son. May you be made whole through the healing power of the Savior. I pray that your faith in Him will grow and that His divine power will become more manifest in your life, both in your home and in your heart. Never forget that the Savior’s loving arms are extended to you at the dawn of each new day, as His invitation remains the same: “Come unto me.”