In September 1831, the Lord declared to church members, “I will that ye should overcome the world; wherefore I will have compassion upon you” (Doctrine and Covenants 64:2).
In prior revelations, He reassured them that He had already overcome the world (Doctrine and Covenants 50:41) and that those who are faithful and endure will likewise overcome it (Doctrine and Covenants 63:47).
Now, He combined the two concepts: We can make choices that enable us to overcome the world through His grace.
President Russell M. Nelson explained that ridding ourselves of worldliness enables us to find emotional peace:
Because the Savior, through His infinite Atonement, redeemed each of us from weakness, mistakes, and sin, and because He experienced every pain, worry, and burden you have ever had, then as you truly repent and seek His help, you can rise above this present precarious world.
You can overcome the spiritually and emotionally exhausting plagues of the world, including arrogance, pride, anger, immorality, hatred, greed, jealousy, and fear. Despite the distractions and distortions that swirl around us, you can find true rest—meaning relief and peace—even amid your most vexing problems.
“Overcome the World and Find Rest,” General Conference, October 2022
He explained that overcoming the world is synonymous with setting aside the “natural man” described by King Benjamin:
For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.
Mosiah 3:19
President Nelson added, “Each time you seek for and follow the promptings of the Spirit, each time you do anything good—things that ‘the natural man’ would not do—you are overcoming the world.”
Today, I will seek the Lord’s guidance and assistance to overcome the natural man within me. I will strive to replace worldiness with Christlike qualities, including compassion, patience, humility, and obedience to God.
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