What a beautiful look at how the Savior inspired others in the New Testament and how he continues to work in our lives today.
“An increased appreciation of our Savior’s ministry will draw us, our families, and students closer to Him,” Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Presidency of the Seventy said during the Church Educational System’s annual “An Evening with a General Authority” devotional February 17. . . .
“In a world full of thorns and thistles, the Savior blesses us with manna—daily bread—His sacramental promise that we might have life, hope, joy, and have them more abundantly,” Elder Gong said.
Drawing from the New Testament, Elder Gong showed a video recounting the experience of the Savior—“the Bread of Life” —feeding the multitude with only a few loaves and fishes.
“What did you notice, feel, and learn as Jesus Christ feeds each of us, and all of us?” Elder Gong asked. “Were the loaves like manna, sweet as coriander and honey? How did two small fishes feed us—fill us—all?”
Elder Gong shared nine things to help a person better understand, draw closer, and become more like the Savior.
1. Our Savior is moved with compassion.
“Many of our Savior’s miracles begin with His understanding and compassion,” Elder Gong said. “Our Savior knows our hearts and circumstances. He is filled with compassion for our hopes and hurts, our desires and needs.”
Sharing examples of the Savior found in the scriptures, Elder Gong spoke of the Savior’s ability to receive, teach, and heal people.
“Through His ministry our Savior is moved by compassion—compassion for the leper, compassion for the man’s son possessed with a foul spirit, compassion for a widowed mother whose only son had died. Our Savior teaches us to be like the good Samaritan who had compassion on the man wounded and left for dead. … Our Savior begins with compassion. He concludes with gracious kindness.”
2. Our Savior starts with what they have.
Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Presidency of the Seventy brings bread to his talk during “An Evening with a General Authority” event at the Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City on Friday, February 17, 2017. Elder Gong said ”Perhaps because all people everywhere understand and depend on bread, our Savior declared “I am the bread of life.” Photo by Laura Seitz, Deseret News.
“Wanting to feed the multitude, our Savior starts by asking His disciples what they have,” he said. “He is Creator of the world, Lord of heaven and earth, yet He starts with what they have, from where they are.”
The Savior is able to take what a person has and make it enough.
“Do you ever look at who you are, at what or who you have to teach, and wonder how what you have can possibly be enough?” he asked. “Perhaps, like the disciples, we look at our few small loaves and fishes and marvel, ‘But what are they among so many?’
In a classroom, teachers invite students to contribute in class where some students offer more, some less.
“As learners and teachers (and we are both), we begin with what we have, with who we are now. He can then magnify us and multiply our efforts,” he said.