Easter = Covenants = Love
EASTER
Easter is a time to celebrate freedom.
Easter is a time to celebrate the freedom Christ’s Resurrection and Atonement bring.
Jesus’ Atonement enabled God to fulfill His promise or covenant with us.
The covenant binds us to Him.
If I was lost in the desert or doing a very important and difficult task or on the battle field and could only choose one person to be with me, it would be Jesus. I want to be bound to Him. I want His promises.
Because my understanding of His Atonement and His covenants is increasing, I plan to celebrate Easter in a more meaningful way.
COVENANTS
A covenant is a two-way promise with God. It begins with baptism. We promise to remember Him and serve Him and He promises to help us and send His Spirit to be with us, and so on.
He did His part in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross. He is continually doing His part. Guess what? We are doing our part, too. We are. We are getting a tiny bit better every day.
Do you think that keeping covenants sounds hard and boring? Try looking at it as simply remembering Him and asking Him to help us be a tiny bit better every day.
Jesus told us to study Isaiah.
In 2 Nephi 9, Jacob tells us why to study Isaiah.
“…that ye might know concerning the covenants of the Lord…”
Isaiah has been hard for me to understand. Now, whenever I read Isaiah, I will know it’s all about God’s love and covenants.
Jesus loves us so much that he wants us to understand His covenants and keep them so we can live with Him forever.
Covenants = Love.
Look at the Lord’s loving covenant words, in 2 Nephi 9:
Gathered Home
Rejoice
Infinite Atonement
Deliverance
O how great the plan of our God
The spirit and the body restored
Clothed with purity
Their joy shall be full forever
Come
Prepare your souls for that glorious day.
Repent. Be baptized. Have perfect faith in the Holy One of Israel
VISUALIZE IT
After reading those words from Jacob 9, I invite you to close your eyes and visualize it. Visualize Him.
I visualize Him in white robes, holding His arms out towards me, then embracing me in the safety of those loving arms. I feel loved. I feel safe. I feel peace and strength. Time stops. I feel immersed in light, love, peace and surety. I want to stay. I choose the love of His covenants.
Sometimes we can’t visualize it or feel it, but, we can strive to do good, even when we don’t feel good.
PRESIDENT RUSSELL M. NELSON
“To each member of the Church I say, keep on the covenant path. Your commitment to follow the Savior by making covenants with Him and then keeping those covenants will open the door to every spiritual blessing and privilege available to men, women, and children everywhere,” (President Nelson’s first message as prophet, April 2018, italics added).
“The new and everlasting covenant and the Abrahamic covenant are essentially the same…
The adjective everlasting denotes that this covenant existed even before the foundation of the world!…
God will not abandon His relationship with those who have forged such a bond with Him. In fact, all those who have made a covenant with God have access to a special kind of love and mercy.
In the Hebrew language, that covenantal love is called hesed…Hesed is a unique term describing a covenant relationship in which both parties are bound to be loyal and faithful to each other. A celestial marriage is such a covenant relationship…Hesed is a special kind of love and mercy that God feels for and extends to those who have made a covenant with Him…
He will continue to work with them and offer them opportunities to change. He will forgive them when they repent. And should they stray, He will help them find their way back to Him.
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…
The Savior’s atoning sacrifice enabled the Father to fulfill His promises made to His children…Jesus Christ is at the center of the Abrahamic covenant…
Covenant keepers who love God and allow Him to prevail over all other things in their lives make Him the most powerful influence in their lives…
Every man and every woman who participates in priesthood ordinances and who makes and keeps covenants with God has direct access to the power of God…
The covenant path is a path of love…The greatest joy you will ever experience is when you are consumed with love for God and for all His children. Loving God more than anyone or anything else is the condition that brings true peace, comfort, confidence, and joy…
When we enter a covenant with God, we have made a covenant with Him who will always keep His word. He will do everything He can, without infringing on our agency, to help us keep ours.” (Liahona, October 2022)
This life is kind of a battle field. Take Jesus along, every day.
Easter = Covenants = Love