Can You Feel So Now? Feeling God's Love in Our Life

“If ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?” —Alma 5:26

There are moments when the reality of Jesus Christ seems to fill our entire soul. We feel forgiven. We want to change. The scriptures feel alive, gratitude comes more easily, and we desire to love and serve God with our whole heart.

But feelings change. Trials come. Prayers may seem unanswered. The spiritual warmth we once felt may become more difficult to recognize.

Alma’s question reaches directly into that experience:

If we once felt to sing the song of redeeming love, can we feel so now?

Alma is not merely asking whether we remember having a powerful spiritual experience. He is asking whether the redeeming power of Jesus Christ is still alive within us. Is His grace still changing our hearts, directing our choices, and drawing us toward the presence of God?

What Is the Song of Redeeming Love?

To understand Alma’s expression, we need to look earlier in Alma 5.

Alma asks his people whether they remember the captivity of their fathers and the mercy through which God delivered them. Their fathers had been in both physical and spiritual bondage, but God changed their hearts, awakened them from spiritual sleep, and illuminated their souls with His word.

Alma then says:

“Their souls did expand, and they did sing redeeming love.” —Alma 5:9

The song of redeeming love is the soul’s response to being rescued by Jesus Christ. It is the joy, gratitude, peace, praise, and love that arise when we realize that because of Him:

• Our sins can be forgiven.
• Our guilt can be replaced with peace.
• Our fallen nature can be changed.
• The chains of spiritual death can be broken.
• We can return to the presence of God.

The word song is a fitting image. Throughout the scriptures, people sing when God delivers them.

After the Lord delivered Israel through the Red Sea, Moses and the children of Israel sang praises to God (Exodus 15:1–2).

The Psalmist testified that the Lord brought him out of a horrible pit and “put a new song” in his mouth (Psalm 40:1–3).

John saw the Saints before the throne of God singing a new song to the Lamb who had redeemed them (Revelation 5:9–10).

This song is more than audible music. It is a condition of the heart. It is the inward witness that we were lost and Christ found us; we were bound and Christ freed us; we were spiritually dead and Christ gave us new life.

How Do We First Come to Feel It?

The scriptures repeatedly reveal the same pattern.

First, we awaken to our need for Christ.

King Benjamin’s people recognized their fallen condition and cried:

“O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ.”

As they exercised faith in Jesus Christ, the Spirit filled them with joy, forgiveness, and peace of conscience (Mosiah 4:1–3).

Alma the Younger experienced the same miracle. Tormented by the memory of his sins, he remembered his father’s teachings about Jesus Christ. He cried within his heart:

“O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me.”

His pain disappeared, marvelous light filled his soul, and his joy became as exquisite as his suffering had been (Alma 36:17–21).

The people of King Benjamin later described a “mighty change” wrought by the Spirit. They no longer desired to do evil but wanted to do good continually. They entered into a covenant to obey God and became the sons and daughters of Christ (Mosiah 5:2–9).

The scriptural pattern is clear:

1. We hear and believe the word of God.
2. We recognize our need for the Savior.
3. We humble ourselves and sincerely repent.
4. We call upon Jesus Christ for mercy.
5. We receive forgiveness and the influence of the Holy Ghost.
6. Christ begins to change our desires and our way of living.

That change—not emotion alone—is the deepest evidence that the song has entered our heart.

“Can Ye Feel So Now?”

Alma’s question is addressed to people who had already experienced conversion.

He does not ask only, “Did you once feel it?” He asks whether their past encounter with grace has become a present way of life.

Immediately after asking this question, Alma speaks about walking blamelessly before God, remaining humble, being cleansed through Christ, stripping ourselves of pride and envy, refusing to mistreat others, and bringing forth righteous works (Alma 5:27–35).

This shows us that the song of redeeming love is not simply a warm feeling. Its music can be heard in a changed life:

• Humility instead of pride.
• Mercy instead of judgment.
• Repentance instead of self-justification.
• Love instead of envy.
• Generosity instead of selfishness.
• Trust in Christ instead of trust in ourselves.

The question “Can ye feel so now?” is not meant to trap us in shame.

In the same sermon, Alma declares that Christ’s “arms of mercy” are extended toward all people. He invites us to come, repent, and freely partake of the tree of life (Alma 5:33–34).

Alma’s question is a loving invitation to examine the direction of our heart and return whenever we have drifted.

How Do We Continue to Feel Redeeming Love?

Remember What God Has Done

Alma begins his sermon by asking the people whether they have “sufficiently retained in remembrance” the Lord’s mercy and deliverance (Alma 5:6).

Spiritual forgetfulness weakens gratitude. Remembering past deliverance strengthens present faith.

This is one reason the sacrament matters so deeply. Each week, we covenant to take Christ’s name upon us, always remember Him, and keep His commandments so that we may always have His Spirit with us (Moroni 4:3; Moroni 5:2).

The sacrament brings us back to the source of the song.

Nourish the Heart with the Word and Prayer

Alma teaches that the souls of his fathers were illuminated “by the light of the everlasting word” (Alma 5:7).

He later explains that his own testimony had been strengthened through many days of fasting and prayer until the Holy Ghost made the truth known to him (Alma 5:45–46).

Scripture study and prayer are not merely boxes to check. They place our heart where the Spirit can remind us who Christ is, what He has done, and who we are becoming through Him.

Repent Without Losing Hope

Repentance is not punishment for people who have failed to remain perfect. It is how disciples continually turn back toward Christ.

When the music begins to fade because of sin, distraction, pride, discouragement, or neglect, we do not restore it by pretending nothing is wrong. We return through honest confession, faith in Jesus Christ, and renewed obedience.

Repentance does not mean Christ has rejected us. The opportunity to repent is evidence that He is still calling us.

Turn Redeeming Love Outward

King Benjamin taught that retaining a remission of our sins is connected with remembering God’s goodness, living in daily humility, calling upon Him, loving our families, and caring for those in need (Mosiah 4:9–30).

Redeeming love cannot remain entirely private.

When we recognize that we are all beggars who depend upon God’s mercy, we become more willing to extend mercy to others. Love received from Christ becomes love offered to His children.

Abide in Christ

The Savior taught:

“Abide in my love.” —John 15:9

He promised that His joy could remain in us and become full. He then commanded His disciples to love one another as He had loved them (John 15:9–12).

To abide means more than occasionally visiting. It means making Christ the continuing home of our heart—returning to Him through prayer, covenants, obedience, service, and trust day after day.

Can We Feel the Song During Trials?

Yes—but it may sound different.

The song of redeeming love is not a promise that disciples will always feel cheerful, energetic, or emotionally uplifted.

The scriptures give faithful believers permission to grieve, struggle, lament, and ask difficult questions.

In Liberty Jail, Joseph Smith cried:

“O God, where art thou?”

The Lord did not condemn him for asking. He answered:

“Peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment.” —Doctrine and Covenants 121:7

The people of Alma felt the Lord’s love while they were still in bondage. God did not immediately remove their burdens. First, He strengthened them and made their burdens light enough for them to bear.

He wanted them to know that He visits His people in their afflictions (Mosiah 24:10–16).

Sometimes redeeming love sounds like joyful praise. At other times, it sounds like a quiet decision:

I still trust Thee.

I will continue turning toward Thee.

I know Thou hast not forgotten me.

The Psalmist could acknowledge that his soul was cast down while also declaring:

“In the night his song shall be with me.” —Psalm 42:8

Sorrow and the song can exist in the same soul.

A season of spiritual silence does not necessarily mean Christ has abandoned us. Sometimes faith is expressed not by singing loudly but by refusing to leave.

Trials can even deepen the song.

They reveal that redemption means more than rescue from unpleasant circumstances. Christ can redeem us within our afflictions. He gives meaning to what we suffer, strengthens us to bear what has not yet been removed, and gradually makes us more like Him.

Because the Son of Man descended below all things, there is no depth of sorrow where His love cannot reach us (Doctrine and Covenants 122:7–9).

What Is the Ultimate Purpose of the Song?

The final purpose is not merely to make us feel better. It is to help us become redeemed, reborn, sanctified, and prepared to return to God.

The song begins with forgiveness, but it leads toward transformation.

As we continually come unto Christ, His grace does more than erase our past. It changes our nature.

We receive His image in our countenance. His name becomes written upon our heart. We learn to love what He loves. Through His blood and grace, we are gradually made holy (Mosiah 5:7–12; Moroni 10:32–33).

This is why Alma connects redeeming love with imagining the day when we will stand before God with a pure heart, clean hands, and His image engraven upon us (Alma 5:14–19).

The ultimate goal is to hear the Lord say:

“Come unto me ye blessed.”

The goal is to enter His presence—not merely because we once felt something beautiful, but because through the grace of Jesus Christ, we have become His.

Redemption also turns us outward.

After Alma tasted the joy of Christ’s redemption, he labored so that other people could taste it and be born of God (Alma 36:23–26).

A redeemed soul naturally wants to help others hear the music.

In the end, the personal song becomes a universal anthem. The revelations describe the day when the Lord’s redeemed will stand with Him and sing together (Doctrine and Covenants 84:98–102).

What begins as a quiet plea for mercy becomes eternal praise in the presence of God.

Can I Feel So Now?

Perhaps the best way to answer Alma’s question is not simply to ask:

Do I feel as emotionally joyful today as I once did?

Better questions might be:

• Am I still looking to Jesus Christ for redemption?
• Do I desire to repent rather than hide from God?
• Am I becoming more humble, merciful, patient, and loving?
• Do I remember what the Lord has already done for me?
• Am I keeping my covenants and seeking the companionship of the Holy Ghost?
• When life is painful, am I still willing to remain with Christ?

Some days the song will fill our souls with unmistakable joy.

On other days, it may be only a trembling whisper beneath grief, illness, weakness, exhaustion, or unanswered questions.

But if our heart is still turning toward the Savior, the music has not ended.

And if we cannot hear it at all, Christ’s arms of mercy remain extended.

We can begin again.

We can remember Him, believe His word, repent, partake of the sacrament, pray for the Holy Ghost, serve someone in need, and take the next faithful step.

The song of redeeming love is ultimately the song of a soul that belongs to Jesus Christ.

Its final note is not merely relief from sin or sorrow. It is transformation, holiness, perfect love, and eternal life in the presence of the Father and the Son.