One of the best hymns (in our lowly opinion) in the LDS hymn book is the classic “I Need Thee Every Hour.” But do we really need Christ every hour? Every time we sin and need forgiveness—yes—and when we die and need to resurrect, well of course, but every hour? We don’t sin or need to be resurrected every hour (well, hopefully we aren’t sinning every hour). So why do I need Jesus each hour of each day?
The answer has to do with the definition of the word “grace.” We know that Christ’s atoning grace can save us from sin and death, but His grace does more than that. The LDS Bible Dictionary defines Jesus’ grace as “diving means of help or strength” or an “enabling power” (“Grace” p. 697). In other words, Christ’s atonement has the power to help us, to give us strength and enable us, in every aspect of our lives, not just in regards to sin and death.
This enabling power of grace is seen in the scriptural story of Nephi, when he is asked by the Lord to build a boat and cross the ocean. This has nothing to do with Nephi’s sins, nor is Nephi dying (although maybe his brothers wished he were? J). No, this has to do with Nephi simply accomplishing something the Lord has asked him to do, a difficult task. Notice what he says to his brothers when they mock him “And I said unto them: If God had commanded me to do all things I could do them. If he should command me that I should say unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth; and if I should say it, it would be done. And now, if the Lord has such great power, and has wrought so many miracles among the children of men, how is it that he cannot instruct me, that I should build a ship?” (1 Nephi 17:51).
It is similar to what Ammon says to his missionary companions, “I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things” (Alma 26:12). It is similar to what Paul said to the Philippians, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13). And it is similar to what happened to Alma’s people in bondage, “And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease” (Mosiah 24:15).
This QB Understands Philippians 4:13
Notice how the Lord is strengthening, helping, giving assistance, and providing “divine means of help or strength” in each of these situations or statements. If you want to do a cool study, search the word “strengthen” in the Book of Mormon and see how often the Lord offers his grace to his people and helps and strengthens them in their day to day lives. It doesn’t matter if you are building a boat or a young mother building a family. It is the same whether you are strengthened against a lion’s den or need strength against a lion sized problem. If you are stuck with a problem about how to light your vessels (like the brother of Jared was), or whether you are struck with a problem about how to solve a math problem—the Lord will help us, day by day, hour by hour, if we will let him. This stirring and miraculous story of the Lord giving divine help and strength (medical wisdom and knowledge in this case) to the mother of one of the survivors of the Haun’s Mill massacre (when a body of Latter-day Saints were mercilessly attacked and murdered, including unarmed women and children) is a perfect example. Notice how the Lord helps this poor mother and saves her son. She said:
[During the Haun's Mill Massacre] the entire hip joint of my wounded boy had been shot away. Flesh, hip bone, joint, and all had been ploughed out from the muzzle of the gun, which the ruffian placed to the child’s hip through the logs of the shop and deliberately fired. We laid little Alma on a bed in our tent and I examined the wound. It was a ghastly sight. I knew not what to do. . . .
Yet was I there, all that long, dreadful night, with my dead and my wounded, and none but God as our physician and help. “Oh my Heavenly Father,” I cried, “what shall I do? Thou seest my poor wounded boy and knowest my inexperience. Oh, Heavenly Father, direct me what to do!”
And then I was directed as by a voice speaking to me. The ashes of our fire was still smouldering. We had been burning the bark of the shag-bark hickory. I was directed to take those ashes and make a lye and put a cloth saturated with it right into the wound. It hurt, but little Alma was too near dead to heed it much. Again and again I saturated the cloth and put it into the hole from which the hip joint had been ploughed, and each time mashed flesh and splinters of bone came away with the cloth; and the wound became as white as chicken’s flesh.
Having done as directed I again prayed to the Lord and was again instructed as distinctly as though a physician had been standing by speaking to me. Nearby was a slippery-elm tree. From this I was told to make a slippery-elm poultice and fill the wound with it…
I removed the wounded boy to a house, some distance off, the next day, and dressed his hip; the Lord directing me as before. I was reminded that in my husband’s trunk there was a bottle of balsam. This I poured into the wound, greatly soothing Alma’s pain. “Alma, my child,” I said, “you believe that the Lord made your hip?”
“Yes, mother.”
“Well, the Lord can make something there in the place of your hip; don’t you believe he can, Alma?”
“Do you think that the Lord can, mother?” inquired the child, in his simplicity.
“Yes, my son,” I replied, “he has showed it all to me in a vision.”
Then I laid him comfortably on his face and said: “Now you lay like that, and don’t move, and the Lord will make you another hip.”
So Alma laid on his face for five weeks, until he was entirely recovered-a flexible gristle having grown in
(as cited in Jack M. Lyon, Jay A. Parry, and Linda R. Gundry, eds., Best-Loved Stories of the LDS People, vol. 2 , p.127)
We testify that “that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Mormon 9:9), and that if God offers his grace to his saints of old during their problems, he will strengthen and assist us in our lives today, no matter what the situation. So do we need him every hour? More like every second.
