Continuing President Russell M. Nelson’s remarks of April 2022 general conference:
We have never needed positive spiritual momentum more than we do now, to counteract the speed with which evil and the darker signs of the times are intensifying. Positive spiritual momentum will keep us moving forward amid the fear and uncertainty created by pandemics, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and armed hostilities. Spiritual momentum can help us withstand the relentless, wicked attacks of the adversary and thwart his efforts to erode our personal spiritual foundation.
Many actions can ignite positive spiritual momentum. Obedience, love, humility, service, and gratitude4 are but a few.
Today I would like to suggest five specific actions we can take to help us maintain positive spiritual momentum.
First: Get on the covenant path and stay there.
Not long ago, I had a vivid dream in which I met a large group of people. They asked me many questions, the most frequent of which was about the covenant path and why it is so important.
In my dream, I explained that we enter the covenant path by being baptized and making our first covenant with God.5 Each time we partake of the sacrament, we promise again to take the name of the Savior upon us, to remember Him, and to keep His commandments.6 In return, God assures us that we may always have the Spirit of the Lord to be with us.
Later we make additional covenants in the temple, where we receive even greater promises. Ordinances and covenants give us access to godly power. The covenant path is the only path that leads to exaltation and eternal life.
In my dream, a woman then asked how someone who has broken his or her covenants can get back on that path. My answer to her question leads to my second suggestion:
Discover the joy of daily repentance.
How important is repentance? Alma taught that we should “preach nothing save it were repentance and faith on the Lord.”7 Repentance is required of every accountable person who desires eternal glory.8 There are no exceptions. In a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord chastised early Church leaders for not teaching the gospel to their children.9 Repenting is the key to progress. Pure faith keeps us moving forward on the covenant path.
Please do not fear or delay repenting. Satan delights in your misery. Cut it short. Cast his influence out of your life! Start today to experience the joy of putting off the natural man.10 The Savior loves us always but especially when we repent. He promised that though “the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed … my kindness shall not depart from thee.”11
If you feel you have strayed off the covenant path too far or too long and have no way to return, that simply is not true.12 Please contact your bishop or branch president. He is the Lord’s agent and will help you experience the joy and relief of repenting.
Now, a caution: Returning to the covenant path does not mean that life will be easy. This path is rigorous and at times will feel like a steep climb.13 This ascent, however, is designed to test and teach us, refine our natures, and help us to become saints. It is the only path that leads to exaltation. One prophet14 described the “blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven … [and] dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness.”15
Walking the covenant path, coupled with daily repentance, fuels positive spiritual momentum.
To read / watch / listen to President Nelson’s complete talk now click. . . . ‘The Power of Spiritual Momentum’
