God's people throughout the history of the world have been a covenant making people, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are also a covenant making people. What is a covenant? In the gospel sense, a covenant is a binding compact, agreement, or promise between man and God. Both the old and the new testaments of the Bible reveal many such covenants. The Lord covenanted with Noah that He would never flood the earth again. Abraham was given the covenant of circumcision that was to remain in force until it was fulfilled in Christ. And there are many more examples in the Bible.
Today, the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints make many covenants with our Maker. At our baptism, we make a covenant to come into the fold of God and be called his people. He must be willing to bear one another's burdens, mourn with those that mourn, comfort those in need of comfort, and stand as a witness of God at all times and in all things and in all places, even until death. Mosiah 18:8-10 states " Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour his Spirit more abundantly upon you?" As a Latter-day Saint, this is perhaps the first covenant we make with God.
When we as Latter-day Saints partake of the sacrament each Sunday, we are renewing those baptismal covenants that we made at our baptism. By taking the sacrament, we once again covenant to remember and rely upon the atoning sacrifice of our Savior, to take his name upon us, to keep his commandments, and to remember Him always. In turn, He promises that we will always have His Spirit to be with us.
Tithing is a covenant that we make with the Lord to assure us of temporal and spiritual blessing. As of old, at least one tenth of all we have goes to the Lord to the building up of His kingdom upon this earth.
Sabbath observance is also a covenant that was first observed in the old testament and that the LDS follow today.
The Word of Wisdom is yet another covenant that we make with the Lord. We covenant to abstain from the use of alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea, and conformity to this covenant assures both strength of body and mind, and also spiritual blessings will follow. In the House of The Lord, the holy temples, several covenants are made. They include the covenant and promise to observe the law of strict virtue and chastity, to be charitable, benevolent, tolerant, and pure. We covenant to devote both talent and material means to the spreading of truth and uplifting of the human race.We also covenant to keep these covenants sacred and to "trifle not with sacred things."
"And this shall be our covenant - that we will walk in all the ordinances of the Lord." D&C 136:2-4
Covenants make members of the Church, individually and collectively, distinct.
Covenants bind a person to God and to one another.
Covenants build unity.
Covenants provide stability.
Covenants set standards of behavior.
Covenants bind believers to the past, present, and future.
The members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are a covenant making people, and we, though imperfect, try diligently to keep these holy covenants.IMHO.
(The information from this blog was taken from various sources.)
