Promises That Keep Reaching
From “The Infinite Power of God in Our Covenants,” by Elder Jeremiah J. Morgan · Saturday afternoon session, October 2026 General Conference
The big idea
The infinite power of God is in our covenants; it reaches across generations, and no one we love has wandered beyond it.
Objective
Learners will be able to explain from Elder Morgan's words and the scriptures how covenants bless more than the person who makes them, and will leave with renewed hope for someone they pray for.
Before you teach
- Read Elder Jeremiah J. Morgan's talk, The Infinite Power of God in Our Covenants, and mark paragraphs 10–12 and 17–22.
- Bring a small card or slip of paper and a pen for each person.
- Write on the board before class: What lies in my power? What is God's to do?
- Ask two people ahead of time to be ready to read the key quotes from paragraphs 18 and 21 aloud.
- Pray by name for the people in your class who are carrying worry for a loved one.
Lesson plan
Thirty minutes in 6 parts. Times are a guide; let the Spirit and the learners set the pace.
Two names
- After the opening prayer, give each person a card. Explain that no one will be asked to show it.
- Invite them to write silently the first name of one person who came before them whose faith has blessed their life, and one person they carry in their prayers.
- Say that today's talk is about what God does between those two names. Ask them to keep the card in front of them.
“It was covenants”
- Retell Elder Morgan's story briefly: each morning when he was a young teenager his mother read the Book of Mormon aloud to him. He remembers only two phrases from it, but he knew it mattered to her and that she knew it was true. He was raised in a different church that also believes in the Book of Mormon. At 14 he began to seek, attended both congregations for two months, and came to know this is the Lord's Church.
- Explain that later, as he retold this experience, he wondered aloud why a young boy would care so much about religion. His wife, Rebecca, answered that it was covenants: his third-great-grandparents had made covenants in the temple in Nauvoo.
- Have someone read the first key quote (paragraph 15).
- Invite pairs to discuss the questions, then take two or three responses.
- Elder Morgan remembers almost none of the words his mother read, yet her effort changed him. When has someone's faithfulness reached you more than their words did?
- What do you notice about who made the covenants that reached him?
How far does a promise reach?
- Divide into two groups (or pairs taking one passage each).
- Group one reads Doctrine and Covenants 2:2 with paragraphs 14–16 of the talk. Group two reads Enos 1:15–18 with paragraphs 17–18.
- Ask each group to prepare one sentence that answers: What does this teach about how long and how far God's promises reach?
- Have each group share its sentence and write it on the board. Ask the reader you assigned to read the key quote from paragraph 18.
- Read aloud Elder Morgan's sentence in paragraph 14 about agency, and ask the question below.
- Elder Morgan teaches both that covenants do not alter the agency of children and that they have a discernible impact on posterity. How do those two truths fit together in your experience?
For those who are waiting
- Say that Elder Morgan spoke directly to those who wonder whether they or a loved one have wandered too far. Read the words of President Holland that he quoted (aligned quote, paragraph 19).
- In pairs, read Doctrine and Covenants 121:1 and then 123:17. Ask pairs to notice where the first verse begins and where the second arrives.
- Have your second reader read the key quote from paragraph 21.
- Point to the two questions on the board. As a class, list answers under each from paragraphs 21–22. Let the class do the listing.
- Share Elder Rasband's words from this conference (aligned quote) and allow a moment of quiet.
- What lies in our power when someone we love is struggling? What have you learned to leave in God's hands?
- What has helped you keep your covenants cheerfully while an answer is still coming?
Say it in a sentence
- Ask each person to turn the card over and finish this sentence in writing: Because the power of God is in covenants, I can…
- Invite three or four people to read their sentence. Listen for both truths: God's reach is without limit, and each person remains free to choose. Gently add whichever one is missing.
Act and testify
- Elder Morgan gave no formal invitation, so invite each person to choose one of the actions listed under Act, or one the Spirit suggests, and write it on the card.
- Read his promise to those who wait: “God hears you and will answer your prayers in His own time and in His own way.”
- Bear your testimony of the Savior, whose Atonement Elder Morgan called the fulfillment of the greatest promise God made.
- Tell the class that next week you will begin by asking what they noticed as they acted. Next week, ask: Where did you see the Lord's hand reaching toward your family?
Key passages from the talk
“It was covenants that had impacted me, not my covenants but the covenants of those who came before me. The power of God in those covenants reached out after me.”
“Like the great binding power of gravity that stretches across the universe, covenants with God stretch over all time and all space.”
“Take comfort; God hears you and will answer your prayers in His own time and in His own way.”
“Don’t ever give up. Your story, your family’s story, is not all written. God is the author and the finisher of it.”
Scriptures
- D&C 2:2 Group one reads it with paragraphs 14–16 and looks for what the Lord plants in hearts and what turns as a result.
- Enos 1:15–18 Group two reads it with paragraph 17 and looks for what Enos asked and what the Lord covenanted; then note Elder Morgan's point that this covenant took more than 2,000 years to be fulfilled.
- D&C 121:1 Read in pairs as the honest cry of someone waiting on the Lord; Elder Morgan echoes it for parents of a struggling child.
- D&C 123:17 Read in pairs right after 121:1; mark what we are to do and what we then wait to see God do, and use it to fill in the two questions on the board.
Other voices that agree
“You have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines.”
“I ask you to turn over to Jesus Christ your despair for those wayward souls.”
Three things to remember
- The power of God in covenants does not stop with the person who makes them.
- No one has wandered beyond the reach of God's love and the Savior's Atonement.
- I can keep my covenants cheerfully and trust God with the rest of the story.
Ways to act this week
- Pray each day by name for the person on your card, and end by telling Heavenly Father you trust His time and His way.
- Read the Book of Mormon every day this week, aloud with someone if you can, even when it seems no one is listening.
- Learn or retell the story of one person whose faithfulness came before yours, and share it with a family member.
- Choose one covenant-keeping habit that lies in your power, such as partaking of the sacrament thoughtfully or worshipping in the house of the Lord, and do it cheerfully this week.
Suggestions written for this lesson, not the speaker’s words.
Music
- Standing on the Promises
Adapting the lesson
- At home: skip the groups. Read Enos 1:15–18 and paragraphs 17–19 together, then let each person share one name they are praying for, if they wish.
- Short on time: keep the two names, the story, and the waiting segment with Doctrine and Covenants 121:1 and 123:17.
- Some in the class may be the first in their family to make covenants or may have no children. Point to Elder Morgan's words that we are all intended beneficiaries of countless covenants, and that covenants are generational in their impact.
This lesson is an independent study aid written for this site. It is not an official lesson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Quotations are word for word from the official talk; paragraph numbers count the paragraphs of the talk as published at churchofjesuschrist.org, not counting headings or picture captions. The activities, questions and ideas for acting are suggestions; follow the Spirit and adapt them to those you teach.