PROVO, Utah — For Shelby Clark, a senior at Brigham Young University, it was the feeling — perhaps even more than the words that were spoken — that accompanied Tuesday’s campus devotional with Elder David A. Bednar that will be most memorable.
Being in the same room as the Apostle delivered his message, Clark said she received a confirmation that Elder Bednar “really is an Apostle of the Lord. … This message was for me, from God, not just from an Apostle.”
Clark was one of thousands of students, faculty and staff who filled the Marriott Center to the topmost rows on the gray midwinter morning for the Jan. 23 devotional featuring Elder Bednar and his wife, Sister Susan Bednar.
In his remarks, Elder Bednar testified that individuals ultimately become “the works of God’s work” as they strive with His help to fulfill their eternal destiny.
Every Latter-day Saint has a work to do, Elder Bednar said, “for of him [and her] unto whom much is given much is required” (Doctrine and Covenants 82:3).
2 lessons from BYU
In her remarks, Sister Bednar shared two lessons she learned as a young student at BYU. First, she encouraged listeners to prepare for and get a patriarchal blessing. To those who have one, she invited them to study it often. “This is what helped me better understand our relationship with our Father and His Beloved Son.”
Second, Sister Bednar testified that making covenants with the Lord will be a source of strength throughout life. She echoed the words of President Russell M. Nelson, who said, “The safest place to be spiritually is living inside your covenants.”
The ‘works of His work’
Following Sister Bednar’s remarks, Elder Bednar said in his personal gospel study he has noted and pondered the use of the word “work” in many oft-quoted scriptures.
The word “work” and its derivatives are used more than 1,100 times throughout the standard works in many different ways, Elder Bednar noted. And yet, “Perhaps the most familiar scripture that focuses upon the importance of work in God’s plan for His children is Moses 1:39. … ‘For behold, this is my work and my glory — to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.’”
In a companion scripture found in Doctrine and Covenants 11:20, the Lord describes the primary work of the sons and daughters of the Father: “Behold, this is your work, to keep my commandments, yea, with all your might, mind and strength.”
Elder Bednar continued, “Thus, God’s work is focused upon the progression and exaltation of His children. Our work as God’s sons and daughters is to love Him and keep His commandments.”
While some may think of God’s work and works as His creations — the “worlds without number” — every facet of God’s work is designed to develop and bless His sons and daughters, Elder Bednar explained.
“Importantly, as we learn about and become anxiously engaged in God’s holy work, then you and I ultimately become the works of His work. We become the results of God’s work as we strive with His help to fulfill our eternal destiny,” he said.
Doing God’s work changes individuals’ hearts and minds in remarkable ways. They become converted to Him, their devotion to Him deepens and they become “born again,” Elder Bednar said.
“Our spiritual rebirth and progress along the covenant path enable us to become sanctified as new creatures in Christ. Ultimately, then, we become the works, or the results, of God’s work.”
As individuals labor in mortality to accomplish God’s purposes, they are proved, polished and prepared for eternal blessings. “We literally are the wondrous works of God’s work — the very reasons for His Eternal plan and for the infinite and eternal atoning sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son.”
Work is essential for spiritual growth
While some may perceive work as unpleasant or compulsory drudgery or toil, “our understanding of the Father’s plan of happiness helps us to recognize that work is a necessity for spiritual progress,” Elder Bednar said.
Disciples of Jesus Christ are to be “doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22). Quoting from the Lectures on Faith, Elder Bednar shared how faith in Christ always leads to righteous action. “Therefore, faithful disciples of Christ are workers ‘anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do[ing] many things of their own free will, and bring[ing] to pass much righteousness’” (Doctrine and Covenants 58:27-28).
Disciples of Christ become the works of God by faithfully doing God’s work, Elder Bednar continued. “Devoted disciples consistently and conscientiously, according to their individual abilities and circumstances, act as agents to do or make something in both the temporal and spiritual aspects of their lives and in their service to others.”
While inaction, idleness, laziness, slothfulness, apathy and procrastination negate the gift and blessing of moral agency and are the antithesis of faith, “work both develops and reveals the firmness of our spiritual purpose,” he said.
Work can also help individuals acknowledge and appreciate their dependence upon God. “Our limited mortal capacity is completely insufficient to ever realize our eternal possibilities; we need and depend upon the grace, strength, inspiration and means that only the Lord can provide,” Elder Bednar said.
A farmer, for example, may recognize God’s gracious gifts of light, water, air and soil as seeds are planted and crops are cultivated and harvested.
“Work helps us to ‘confess … his hand in all things’ and ‘live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which [God] doth bestow upon [us]’” (Doctrine and Covenants 59:21 and Alma 34:38), Elder Bednar said.
Promise and testimony
Referencing the prophet Isaiah’s prophecy (Isaiah 29:14), Elder Bednar testified, “Truly, the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the reestablishment of the Savior’s Church with His doctrine, priesthood authority, and sacred covenants and ordinances, and the ushering in of the dispensation of the fullness of times is the latter-day marvelous work and a wonder foretold by Isaiah.”
The spread of this marvelous work across the earth enables individuals to “become the works of God’s work — even the results of His loving labor and divine direction. The holy work in which we are engaged stretches, strengthens, enlightens, transforms and purifies us,” Elder Bednar said.
The Apostle reiterated to listeners that ongoing conversion, becoming devoted disciples, receiving personal revelation and seeking gifts of the Spirit all require “focused and sustained work. We must strive to become agents who exercise faith in the Savior and act and shun becoming objects that merely are acted upon.”
To individuals striving to perform their work, Elder Bednar exhorted them to be wise in their use of contemporary technological tools.
“Innovations such as artificial intelligence have the potential to both: one, assist you in receiving magnificent blessings and, two, diminish and suffocate your moral agency. Please do not allow the supposed accuracy, speed and ease of modern technologies to entice you to avoid or circumvent the righteous work that invites into your life the blessings you will need. My beloved brothers and sisters, there are no spiritual shortcuts or quick-fixes.”
Elder Bednar concluded with an invitation to prayerfully consider “the wondrous works of God.”
He promised: “As you respond in faith to this invitation, I promise that by the power of the Holy Ghost you will be blessed with eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to understand your place in and roles as the ‘wondrous works of God’ in this latter-day marvelous work and a wonder.”
What they learned
As a senior preparing for graduation, Grace Pope said she has felt a bit of angst about making next-step career decisions. After listening to the devotional, however, she felt prompted to focus on her patriarchal blessing and to trust that God has a plan for her.
When Elder Bednar talked about there not being shortcuts, Pope said, “I thought of just this clear path where you have to take the whole path. … I don’t need to look for any shortcuts.”
Clark, who will also be graduating soon, said she understands better now that God is actively partnering with her on her life. “[God’s] not just sitting back, but He’s actively working for me, so as I actively work to follow His commandments and to just do the things that I need to, then that’s when blessings come as we’re both putting in the work.”
Jake Gomez, a junior, said he now wants to read and prayerfully ponder his patriarchal blessing with the question “What is my work?”
“I think there’s something individual for each of us that God is looking for us to accomplish,” Gomez said.
One of the things that stood out to Kailey Scott was Elder Bednar’s teaching about procrastination and laziness being in opposition to true faith in Jesus Christ. “It made me just want to be even more proactive in all areas of my life and really go out of my way to find service opportunities,” she said.
