“And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.” (Ether 12:27). Many of us put off repenting from our sins because we fear that we are too weak and giving in to temptation has only made us weaker and any attempts to repent and reform our ways will only lead to a swift relapse, leaving us worse off than we might otherwise have been. To the extent that it is true that having fallen into sin is evidence that we are weak, and having remained in sin has only made it weaker, nevertheless, repentance brings with it forgiveness and the enabling power of our Savior's grace, which can purge us of the debilitating effects of sin, cleanse and sanctify our souls, and through our faith it can make us whole. Would not this make us stronger? Of course it would. And I don't fully accept the premise that having succumbed to sin necessarily makes us weaker. After all, sin is a heavy burden, and we all know that the best way to develop strength is to lift and carry weights. I'm not suggesting that we ought to seek out sin as a form of spiritual strength building exercise, nor do I mean that carrying the weight of sin by itself is enough to make us stronger, but when we exercise true repentance after having sinned and come unto the Lord with full purpose of heart, He takes our broken heart and our twisted spirit and He builds it back up even stronger than before. How did Christ Himself become so strong? He carried the weight of sin - not His own, for He had none - but the weight of every single sin of every single child of God. The strength He got from literally bearing the weight of the world upon His shoulders is what allows Him to be able to make weak things like us become strong. If any of us have sinned and are holding onto that weight because we are afraid that we will be too weak to resist sin if we repent and are truly forgiven, I hope we all remember that through repentance and the Atonement of Jesus Christ, there is more strength available to us than we would ever dare to hope, and the fact that we have carried a burden for a long time does not make us weak but gives us the potential to become much, much stronger through the efforts of our own personal trainer, Jesus Christ.
