Embracing Christ
AN INVITATION AND PROMISE FROM PRESIDENT ETHAN WILLIS OF THE GILBERT ARIZONA SEVILLE STAKE
Embracing Jesus Christ means having faith in and completely relying on Him—trusting in His infinite power, intelligence, and love. It means believing that even though we do not understand all things, He does. Because He has experienced all our sins, pains, afflictions, and infirmities, He knows how to enable and strengthen us to rise above our daily difficulties and repent of our sins (see Alma 7:11–12; Doctrine and Covenants 122:8).
With all of the distractions in the world, it is hard to have a strong relationship with our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, without daily meaningful prayer. I was touched by Elder Holland’s “How I Hear Him” message about carving out “high-priority time” for what he calls “muscular, urgent, determined prayer.” He said, “We should make every effort for Him to hear us literally…when we can kneel, be vocal and pray out loud.”
Here are my two invitations:
Audible Daily Prayer
Find a quiet, private place each day to kneel and pray out loud to our Heavenly Father as Elder Holland suggested. I encourage you to do this each day from now until next Fast Sunday, March 6th.
A Dedicated Fast Sunday, March 6th
The scriptures teach us that fasting strengthens the power of our prayers (Isaiah 58:6–11). I invite our stake to join together in a unified fast on Sunday, March 6th, to know what the Lord would teach us individually about how we can “more fully embrace Jesus Christ and invite others to do the same.”
NOTE: Church members can now view their own patriarchal blessings online after logging in to their personal account and request the patriarchal blessings of deceased direct-line ancestors by virtue of one of two new tools on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
My Promise to You
I promise that as you accept these invitations you will feel a deeper, more personal relationship with our Heavenly Father and His Son. You will also have the clarity you seek as you receive answers to the questions in your heart and will know who the Lord would have you invite to come closer to Him.
Prayer of Enos:
“And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.
And there came a voice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed.
And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away.
And I said: Lord, how is it done?
And he said unto me: Because of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore, go to, thy faith hath made thee whole.
Now, it came to pass that when I had heard these words I began to feel a desire for the welfare of my brethren, the Nephites; wherefore, I did pour out my whole soul unto God for them.” (Enos 1: 4-9)
Printable Worksheet:
Print out this double-sided worksheet for you and members of your family who have received patriarchal blessings to participate in the invitation.
