Ministering as Jesus Christ did

One of the prompts in the "Come, Follow Me" manual this week was to look for how the Savior ministered to the people and discover how we can follow His example. Even in a multitude of 2,500, the Savior ministered one by one (11:15, 17:21). It is part of His character to know each of us individually. And if we want to become more like Him, we need to minister like Him. 3 Nephi 17-19 are great chapters that teach us how the Savior ministers to His people and how we can do the same.

1. have compassion for your people (17:6)
2. bring your people to Him (17:7)**
3. worship Him (17:10)
4. pray unto the Father for your people (17:15-17)*
5. be willing (18:10)
6. watch and pray always (18:15,17)*
7. meet together oft (18:22)
8. hold up your light (18:24)
9. never give up - "you know not but that they will return" (18:32)
10. pray-minister-pray (19:7-8)*

*In these three chapters alone I counted 43 forms of the word prayer! Truly there is a powerful connection between prayer and ministering.

**I love that the Savior asks the people to go and find others that need to be healed and bring them to Him (17:7). Here's a question to think about...who would you bring? There's a lesson we can learn here: Our job is to bring people to Christ to be healed. Christ's job is to heal. 

Just like when Jesus came to visit the Nephites and introduced a higher law to them (3 Nephi 9:19-20), we've also been given the higher law of ministering. When Pres. Nelson announced the decision to "retire home and visiting teaching as we have known them" he then announced that we would be replacing that effort with "a newer, holier approach to caring for and ministering to others." Ministering like Christ invites us to become holier; to become more like Him. I like this quote I found about living a higher law. It states, “the higher law is a law for celestial living. It is a law of heart and soul. It is not a schoolmaster of specific behaviors, but a law of living a Christlike life that we might become perfect” (Teachings and Commentaries on the Book of Mormon by Ed J. Pinegar and Richard J. Allen, pg. 440)

I hope that I can do better to follow Jesus Christ's example when it comes to ministering, and approach that calling not just as a responsibility, but also as an opportunity to love and care for others the way our Savior did.