Gospel Message Day 287

Lord's Covenant People, Part 2

I will be honest--I need more help with this. It's a topic I know of. And I believe in it. But I don't know how to talk about it. Or how to put it in my own words. All I know to say is that a covenant is a 2-way promise between a person (or group of people) and the Lord. The Lord promises blessings which will be fulfilled if we are obedient to His commandments.

But as for the people, not really sure what to say. So I'm going to look at the Gospel Principles manual, the chapter on this topic, and see if it gives my mind more ideas. And today I will probably add quotes from the manual.

"The people who covenant with the Lord and with whom the Lord makes covenants are known as the Lord’s covenant people. Members of the Church are part of the Lord’s covenant people."

The manual points out that we make more than one kind of covenant. Baptism is a covenant. So is the sacrament. All of the temple ordinances are us making covenants with Heavenly Father.

The manual continues to mention that the Lord has made particular covenants with groups of people. I think that's where my confusion of what to say comes from. I hear the phrase "Lord's covenant people" and I immediately think about a group of people, like the Israelites. The manual refers to the Abrahamic covenant:

"Because of Abraham’s righteousness, the Lord made a covenant with him and his descendants.

The Lord promised Abraham that he would have numberless descendants. He promised that all of them would be entitled to receive the gospel, the blessings of the priesthood, and all of the ordinances of exaltation. These descendants, through the power of the priesthood, would carry the gospel to all nations. Through them, all the families of the earth would be blessed (see Abraham 2:11). God further promised that if they were righteous He would establish His covenant with all generations of Abraham’s children (see Genesis 17:4–8)."

Then there is, of course, the members of the Church. Considering the covenants I mentioned before, that would definitely make LDS Church members a covenant-keeping people.

So what I'm learning is that the Lord's covenant people means, basically, anyone who covenants with the Lord. But I think more importantly, it is anyone who is diligently trying to keep those covenants.