By David Armstrong
Life is a test. We have all heard that statement many times. What is amazing about this particular test, however, is how God has rigged it so we can succeed, guaranteed.
The sacrament is like a weekly quiz along our path through mortality to reach the final exam at Judgment Day. Elder Kevin W. Pearson of the Seventy taught in the October 2022 general conference: “Partaking of the sacrament is not a passive religious ritual implying our mere consent. It is a powerful reminder of the reality of the Savior’s infinite Atonement and the need to always remember Him and keep His commandments. Willingness to focus on the Savior is so crucial it is the central message of the two most quoted scriptures in the Church: the sacrament prayers” (“Are You Still Willing?”).
Willingness is the key word in our sacramental covenants. We promise to be willing to take upon us Christ’s name, always remember Him, and keep His commandments. We are not required to make the impossible promise that we will be perfect at these things, but we are at least willing to try every week. We want to make the effort, even though in the very moment we make the covenant, we know we will fail at some point, maybe even before we leave the meeting. But we are still willing. We want to try. And that is what the Lord asks of us—to try. And to keep trying, with the hope that we will get a little better with each iteration.
In the prayer on the water, however, the word “willing” is not present. With the water we promise to do just one thing—always remember Christ. We may stumble as we try to learn to take His name upon us and keep all His commandments, but one thing we can surely do is remember Him. We invoke His name in every daily prayer. We read his words in daily scripture study. As we serve others, we do so in His name. Always remembering Christ is not a hard thing to do if we are doing all the other basic habits of daily discipleship. That is why these little daily rituals are so important. That is why the prophet and all our leaders remind us continually to do these simple, basic things every day. They are a crucial step toward keeping our covenant promise to always remember Christ. And in return, Christ promises that we will always have His Spirit to be with us. It is a tender mercy that He gives us a commandment and then turns around and promises to help us keep it.
The scriptures remind us of the grace and mercy of Christ in helping us keep the commandments that will ultimately qualify us to receive His greatest gift—immortality and eternal life.
1 Nephi 3:7—“And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.”
1 Corinthians 10:13—“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
It’s like the professor in the Parable of the Final Exam, who attached the answer key to the test papers to guarantee everyone would get an A. How could we possibly fail the test of mortality with Christ standing by with an eraser to remove every wrong answer and standing at our side to ensure we pass with flying colors?
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