Why Does President Russell M. Nelson Want You To Focus On Studying Your Covenants?

“As you study your scriptures during the next six months, I encourage you to make a list of all that the Lord has promised He will do for covenant Israel. ... Ponder these promises. Talk about them with your family and friends. Then live and watch for these promises to be fulfilled in your own life.”  President Russell M. Nelson

Why are the blessings of the covenant repeated and laid out so many different times over the years? One apparent answer is that the Lord teaches by repetition. The word remember is one of the most important in the gospel. The Lord repeated the promises to Abraham in much the same way that He now repeats promises of blessings to us. Our minds are fragile.

One bad day is all too often enough to make us forget the blessings we have and those we have been promised. We take the sacrament each week and promise to remember our Savior. Each week when we do so, we hear the same sacrament prayer, as the Lord teaches by repetition. Each time we attend the temple, we hear the same words of the ceremony—repetition.

Many times the important things in life somehow seem less important with continued exposure and repetition. But there is nothing unimportant about the sacrament that is administered with the same prayer and in the same manner every week. There is nothing unimportant about the ceremonies of the temple, which are repeated each time we attend.

The repetition in ordinances serves as a much-needed reminder. If the repetition is making the experience seem less important, then we are losing track of the lesson. The Lord taught Abraham by repetition, and we should be grateful that He continues to teach that way throughout our lives.

Too often we don’t immediately recognize the blessings the Lord bestows upon us because they aren’t in the form we requested. If we find ourselves frustrated because life seems to not be what we envisioned—even when we have entered into covenant and have been faithful to it—we have the assurance of the Savior that the promised blessings will arrive.

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? (Matthew 7:7–11)

Those who receive the Lord’s gospel are called Abraham’s seed. This is the great blessing that we as Latter-day Saints must recognize and treasure. We are both the fulfillment and the heirs of the blessings promised to Abraham.

The following was taken from the book Your Covenant, by author Mark A. Shields, currently on sale at cedarfort.com.