Do you desire to feel closer to the Savior? What would it be like if you could walk beside him for a day? What if you could feel that his Promise “I am with you” was true?
Consider the words of this song
If the Savior stood beside me,
Would I do the things I do?
Would I think of His commandments and try harder to be true?
Would I follow His example?
Would I live more righteously if I could see the Savior standing nigh,
Watching over me?
If the Savior stood beside me,
Would I say the things I say?
Would my words be true and kind if He were never far away?
Would I try to share the gospel?
Would I speak more rev'rently if I could see the Savior standing nigh,
Watching over me?
If the Savior stood beside me, would my thoughts be clean and pure?
Would His presence give me strength and hope and courage to endure?
Would His counsel guide my actions?
Would I choose more worthily if I could see the Savior standing nigh
Watching over me?
Watching over me, watching over me,
He is always near me, though I do not see Him there,
And because He loves me dearly,
I am in His watchful care,
So I'll be the kind of person that I know I'd like to be
If I could see the Savior standing nigh watching over me.
I will be the kind of person that I know I'd like to be
If I could see the Savior standing nigh watching over me.
I love the impact this personal introspection can have on our lives. Do you believe the words given in the last verse? “He is always near me” Have you ever felt that to be true?
The Lord has made you a special promise. “And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.“ (D&C 84:88)
Wow. Not only do you get His Angels to bear you up, but He promises Himself to be there for you.
And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. (Leviticus 26 12)
Does Jesus Himself really come down and walk with you?
Consider His promise made to one of his missionaries In the latter days, Ziba Peterson.
And Ziba Peterson also shall go with them; and I myself will go with them and be in their midst; and I am their advocate with the Father, and nothing shall prevail against them.(D&C 32:3)
Does His promise to Ziba apply to us?
“And now, verily I say unto you, and what I say unto one I say unto all, be of good cheer, little children; for I am in your midst, and I have not forsaken you;” (D&C 61:36)
Let me suggest a few ways we can draw closer to the Savior, walk with Him, and Feel His presence more in our lives.
1. Teach His gospel
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:19)
As we go forward with Faith in Christ to teach His Gospel- He goes with us.
I was in my first months of serving in Brazil. I had a great trainer that worked diligently to teach the gospel to as many as we could. We spoke with dozens and sometimes hundreds of people a day. One night, as we were heading home in the late evening, we started to teach a man who was walking in the same direction as us. We had spent a full day teaching. We were tired and the sun had set. Yet we walked with this man and bore our final day testimonies to him
Suddenly I felt a wonderful presence accompanying the three of us. An image of the Savior walking with the two disciples on the road of Emanus came to my mind with these words.
“while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.
But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.” (Luke 25:15-16)
A wonderful presence was felt. I could see in my minds eye, the Savior walking with the three of us. As we left this man, I turned to my companion and asked if He had felt something. He had tears in his eyes and confirmed that he had the same experience as my own.
Our hearts had burned within us. Just as it did for those two disciples when the Savior walked with them.
2. Be of Good Cheer
Consider how this commandment is linked to faith in The Lord’s promise to be with you
Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come. (D&C 68 6)
Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. (Joshua 1: 9)
Lift up your hearts and be glad, for I am in your midst, and am your advocate with the Father; and it is his good will to give you the kingdom. (D&C 29:5 5)
To the paralytic man lying helpless on a bed, Jesus proclaimed, “Be of good cheer” (Matthew 9:2). To the frightened Apostles battling the tempestuous sea, Jesus appeared on the water, declaring, “Be of good cheer” (Matthew 14:27). To Nephi the son of Nephi, who was subject to an arbitrary law threatening his life and the lives of other righteous Nephites if the signs prophesied by Samuel the Lamanite didn’t occur, the Lord said, “Lift up your head and be of good cheer” (3 Nephi 1:13). As Joseph Smith met with ten elders about to be sent out, two by two, to missions fraught with trouble and danger, the Lord announced, “Be of good cheer” (D&C 61:36). In each instance the people had every reason to be anxious, fearful, and hopeless, yet the Lord directed them toward a reason to rejoice.
How does the Lord’s admonition of cheer sound when it is applied to you and me in our world today? When economic uncertainties, terrorist threats, and corruption provide top stories for the evening news, where does the good news of the gospel intervene? When we experience personal loss in so many ways and on so many days, what is left to be cheerful about?
Jesus said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). “How was it possible for the Twelve to be of good cheer?” Elder Neal A. Maxwell asked.
The unimaginable agony of Gethsemane was about to descend upon Jesus; Judas’ betrayal was imminent. Then would come Jesus’ arrest and arraignment; the scattering of the Twelve like sheep; the awful scourging of the Savior; the unjust trial; the mob’s shrill cry for Barabbas instead of Jesus; and then the awful crucifixion on Calvary. What was there to be cheerful about? Just what Jesus said: He had overcome the world! The atonement was about to be a reality. The resurrection of all mankind was assured. Death was to be done away with—Satan had failed to stop the atonement. [But a Few Days (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1983),
You can be of good cheer by knowing that the Lord Lives and is with you.
3. Love Him
If you Love Him. You’ll keep His commandment. You’ll feast on His words. You’ll give up all your sins to know Him.
D&C 88:63 Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
Conclusion
I KNOW that the Savior lives! I know He love us. I know that “His eyes out upon us” and that “He is in our midst” that we cannot see Him. But the day soon comets that we shall see Him and know that He is. D&C 38:7-8
