As 100-year-old President Russell M. Nelson recently met a new great-granddaughter and contemplated challenges she will experience in life, he felt a desire to help her build faith in Jesus Christ.
“She, like each of us, will face challenges. We all will experience illness, disappointment, temptation and loss,” President Nelson told members and friends of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the conclusion of April 2025 general conference.
“These challenges can knock our self-confidence. However, disciples of Jesus Christ have access to a different kind of confidence.”
This kind of confidence, President Nelson explained, is born of the Spirit and comes when making and keeping covenants with God.
“I invite you to take intentional steps to grow in your confidence before the Lord,” President Nelson said. “Then, as we go to our Heavenly Father, with increasing confidence, we will be filled with more joy, and your faith in Jesus Christ will increase. We will begin to experience spiritual power that exceeds our greatest hopes.”
Confidence in approaching God — now
During his Sunday afternoon message, President Nelson taught what confidence before God looks like and how to obtain it. He also announced 15 new temples.
“When I speak of having confidence before God, I am referring to having confidence in approaching God right now,” President Nelson said.
Having confidence before God means praying with confidence that Heavenly Father is listening. It means having confidence that He loves His children, sends angels to be with them, understands their needs and yearns to help them reach their highest potential.
How does someone gain such confidence? The Lord told the Prophet Joseph Smith: “Let thy bowels … be full of charity towards all men, … and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 121:45).
Charity and virtue open the way to confidence before God, President Nelson pointed out.
“Brothers and sisters, we can do this,” he assured. “Our confidence can truly wax strong in the presence of God, right now.”
Charity
Two years ago, in April 2023 general conference, President Nelson called upon Latter-day Saints as covenant followers of Jesus Christ to be peacemakers.
“Anger never persuades. Hostility builds no one. Contention never leads to inspired solutions,” he declared that day and repeated again Sunday afternoon.
The hallmark of peacemakers is true charity toward all, President Nelson said. Charity is imperative in both public and private discourse.
“I thank those of you who took my previous counsel to heart. But we can still do better,” he said, referring to the “alarming” hostility present in public dialogue and on social media.
Followers of Jesus Christ lead the way as peacemakers, President Nelson said. “As charity becomes part of our nature, we will lose the impulse to demean others. We will stop judging others. We will have charity for those from all walks of life. …
“Let us plead with our Heavenly Father to fill our hearts with greater charity — especially for those who are difficult to love.”
Virtue
President Nelson emphasized the Lord’s counsel to garnish one’s thoughts unceasingly with virtue.
“Imagine the boost you will receive to any positive thought, when you enhance it with virtue. Virtue makes everything better and happier,” he said.
“On the other hand, imagine what will happen when you add virtue to an impure thought, a cruel thought or a depressing thought. Virtue will drive away those thoughts. Virtue will free you from anxious, troublesome thoughts.”
As the world grows more wicked, followers of Jesus Christ need to grow increasingly pure, President Nelson said.
“Our thoughts, words and actions need to be unfailingly virtuous and filled with the pure love of Jesus Christ towards all men. The great opportunity before us is to become the people God needs us to be.”
Preparing for the Lord’s Second Coming
President Nelson concluded by teaching that regular worship in the house of the Lord increases capacity for both charity and virtue.
“Thus, time in the temple increases our confidence before the Lord,” he said. “Increased time in the temple will help us prepare for the Second Coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
“We do not know the day or the hour of His coming. But I do know that the Lord is prompting me to urge us to get ready for that ‘great and dreadful day’ (Malachi 4:5). …
“He is preparing to come again. May we likewise prepare to receive Him.”
