Growing up, I believed in God. I knew He existed, but that knowledge felt distant, academic. It wasn’t until I made the conscious choice to develop a real relationship with Him that everything changed. The difference between believing in God and knowing Him personally is like the difference between reading about a place and actually living there.
This is why I’m struck by the way Nephi expresses himself in 2 Nephi 33:6. Notice how he doesn’t just say “Jesus”—he says “my Jesus.” In those two simple words, we glimpse the depth of Nephi’s personal relationship with the Savior.
Think about how we use the word “my.” We say “my home,” “my family,” “my friends”—things that are dear to our hearts. When Nephi says “my Jesus,” he’s expressing something personal about his relationship with the Savior. It’s not just theoretical knowledge or religious tradition—it’s a connection that has transformed his life.
That transformation is real. When I look back at my journey from simply believing to truly knowing, I see how each step toward Him brought new light, new understanding, new blessings. It wasn’t always easy, and it didn’t happen overnight, but as I worked to develop that relationship, He met me more than halfway.
This reminds me of the hymn “I Know That My Redeemer Lives,” where we sing those words: “He lives, my ever-living Head.” There’s something different about claiming that personal connection, about recognizing Jesus not just as the world’s Savior, but as our personal Redeemer.
The context of Nephi’s statement reveals a beautiful progression: ‘I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell.’ He moves from glorying in principles to glorying in a person. As we embrace and live truth, we naturally draw closer to the Savior, transforming our understanding from abstract principles to deeply personal experience.
Each of us can develop this kind of personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He isn’t just a historical figure or a distant deity—He can be our Jesus, our personal Savior, our individual Redeemer. When we accept His invitation to “come unto me” (Matthew 11:28), we begin to understand what Nephi felt when he said “my Jesus.”
Like many of you, I’ve learned that knowing Jesus Christ isn’t something that just happens—it’s something we choose and work toward. It’s in the daily decisions to pray meaningfully, to study His words, to follow His example. The blessing is that He’s always ready to meet us wherever we are on that journey, ready to help us transform belief into knowledge, distance into closeness.
I testify that Jesus Christ knows each of us personally. He isn’t just the Savior of the world in some abstract sense—He is my Jesus, your Jesus, our Jesus, ready to redeem each soul that turns to Him. Like Nephi, we can glory in this personal relationship, knowing that He has the power to redeem our souls.
Elder Linder 