Talk Preparation Guide for "Consider Your Ways, and from This Day Will the Lord Bless You"

Elder Ciro Schmeil teaches that Jesus Christ and our covenants provide essential help as we prepare to return to Heavenly Father. He invites us to consider our priorities, approach the sacrament with willing hearts, and strengthen our relationship with God through temple covenants. As you prepare your sacrament meeting talk, prayerfully select principles and personal experiences that help listeners draw closer to the Savior. Preview questions: How does Jesus Christ help us overcome weakness? How do covenants bind us to Him? What does willing participation in the sacrament look like? What does Haggai’s account teach about making the temple a priority? What adjustments can help us align our lives with God’s will?

Topics

Prepare to Meet God Through His Divine Helps

Heavenly Father’s plan provides a way for His children to return to His presence. Jesus Christ and our covenants offer divine help as we prepare to meet God during mortality.

God is our Father in Heaven, and He prepared a plan for us to return to His presence.

I will mention two of these divine helps: the Savior Jesus Christ and our covenants.

Key Points:

God’s plan is a plan of salvation and happiness.
Mortality is a time to prepare to meet God.
Heavenly Father does not leave us alone on our journey.
Jesus Christ and our covenants help guide us back to God.

Experiences:

What experience helps you see mortal life as preparation to meet God?
When do you recognize Heavenly Father’s help during a difficult season?
How does knowledge of the plan of happiness influence a decision you face?
What everyday experience illustrates how the Savior or your covenants guide you?

Seek Christ with Humility and Faith

Jesus Christ knows each of us and helps us confront our weaknesses as we come to Him. Humility makes us receptive to God’s will, and faith helps us trust Christ even when we lack answers.

Jesus Christ knows us individually, and He will help us if we seek Him:

A central feature of humility is having a broken heart, which means to be receptive to the will of God.

To be receptive to the will of God, we must have faith in Christ, which means that we trust Him even when we don’t have all the answers.

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. … For if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them

Key Points:

The Savior knows us individually and invites us to seek Him.
Humility and faith in Christ allow weak things to become strong.
A broken heart includes willingness to accept God’s will.
Faith involves trusting Christ without having every answer.
Jesus Christ’s Atonement provides forgiveness for repented sins.

Experiences:

What experience helps you recognize that Jesus Christ knows you personally?
When does acknowledging a weakness lead you to seek the Savior’s help?
How do you practice trusting Christ while an important question remains unanswered?
What experience shows how accepting God’s will changes your attitude or actions?

Bind Yourself to Christ Through Covenants

Making and keeping covenants expresses faith in Jesus Christ. Covenants bind us to the Savior, whose invitation to take His yoke promises rest and help with our burdens.

We show our faith in Christ by making and keeping covenants with God.

A covenant is a sacred promise between God and His children. God gives the conditions for the covenant, and His children agree to obey those conditions. God promises to bless His children as they fulfill the covenant.

Covenants bind us to Jesus Christ because He is central to every covenant we make.

It is through covenants that we become yoked with the Savior Jesus Christ and our burdens become lighter.

Key Points:

God establishes the conditions of covenants and promises blessings as His children fulfill them.
Jesus Christ is central to every covenant we make.
Covenant keeping demonstrates faith in the Savior.
Being yoked with Christ offers rest and makes burdens lighter.
Baptism is the first covenant we make with God.

Experiences:

How does remembering a covenant help you make a difficult choice?
What experience illustrates how the Savior helps you carry a burden?
How does your understanding of baptism deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ?
When does keeping a covenant bring a sense of rest or reassurance?

Remember Christ Through Willing Sacrament Worship

The sacrament renews baptismal promises and helps us always remember Jesus Christ. Elder Schmeil emphasizes willingness rather than perfection and teaches that reverent participation brings the Spirit and strength to continue on the covenant path.

Jesus Christ instituted the sacrament to help us remember Him with the promise that if we do so, we will have His Spirit with us

In the sacrament prayer we have a good reminder that we do not need to be perfect to partake of the sacrament.

We need to be willing to take upon us His name, remember Him, and keep His commandments, and in return we have the promise to always have His Spirit with us.

The sacrament is essential to have the Spirit and the strength to continue on the covenant path.

Key Points:

Weekly sacrament worship renews promises made at baptism.
The sacrament directs our remembrance toward Jesus Christ.
The sacrament prayers emphasize willingness to take His name, remember Him, and keep His commandments.
The promised companionship of the Spirit strengthens us on the covenant path.
Elder Renlund encourages participation with a broken heart and contrite spirit, even when we feel hesitant to attend.
Sabbath activities consistent with God’s purposes bring joy, peace, spiritual nourishment, and physical refreshment.

Experiences:

What do you do before or during the sacrament that helps you remember Jesus Christ?
When does sacrament worship help you feel renewed strength or spiritual direction?
How does focusing on willingness rather than perfection help you approach the sacrament?
What Sabbath practice helps you feel spiritually nourished and better prepared to keep your covenants?

Prioritize the Temple and Align with God’s Will

Haggai’s account shows that much effort produces little when God’s house is not a priority. As the Israelites reconsider their ways and begin rebuilding the temple, the Lord promises blessings; Elder Schmeil applies this invitation to our relationship with God through covenants.

The sacrament also prepares us to make and keep temple covenants.

We learn from this account that the Lord could not magnify their efforts because their actions were not aligned with God’s will.

Although they were doing much, they were not accomplishing much because God’s holy house was not a priority in their lives.

Heavenly Father is not asking us to physically build the temple, but He is asking us to build a strong relationship with Him and His Son, Jesus Christ, through our covenants.

Key Points:

The Lord invites His people to consider their ways.
Busyness does not necessarily mean our priorities align with God’s will.
The Israelites respond to the Lord’s correction through repentance and action.
Making and keeping temple covenants strengthens our relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
The sacrament helps prepare us for temple covenants.

Experiences:

When does examining your schedule reveal a need to change your spiritual priorities?
What practical adjustment helps you give the temple greater priority?
How does preparing for or participating in temple worship strengthen your relationship with God without sharing sacred ordinance details?
What experience helps you distinguish being busy from doing what matters most to the Lord?

Trust God’s Promises as You Keep Covenants

God knows what is best for us and desires to bless us as we align our lives with Him. Covenant faithfulness brings temporal and spiritual blessings, and enduring faithfully leads to the promise of dwelling with God in never-ending happiness.

He will magnify our efforts as we consider our ways and make the proper adjustments to make and keep covenants with Him.

God knows what is best for us and is eager to bless us.

From this day will I bless you

The sacrament has helped me to keep my baptismal and temple covenants.

Consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness

Key Points:

Considering our ways includes making adjustments that support covenant faithfulness.
God keeps His promises and can magnify our efforts.
Elder Schmeil testifies of receiving spiritual and physical strength when he needs it most.
The sacrament helps sustain both baptismal and temple covenants.
King Benjamin teaches that commandment keeping brings temporal and spiritual blessings.
Faithfulness to the end leads to eternal happiness in God’s presence.

Experiences:

What experience strengthens your confidence that God keeps His promises?
How do you recognize spiritual or physical strength from the Lord during a challenge?
What adjustment in your covenant living helps you notice God’s blessings?
How does the promise of eternal happiness help you remain faithful amid present difficulties?