Elder
Nelson said a mission is an exercise in obedience training. “Obedience
brings success; exact obedience brings miracles.”
“Deep Obedience"
Kim B. Clark
Obedience connects us
to the Savior and opens channels for His love and power to flow into us, much
like life-giving nutrients flow from the trunk of a tree into its branches. The
Savior said:
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that
abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me
ye can do nothing.
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; . . .
These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in
you, and that your joy might be full.2
The Lord gives us
commandments so that we might have His love, joy, and power in our lives. When
we disobey those commandments, we weaken our connection to Him. If we do not
repent, we become cut off from the source of divine power and joy in life. But
the more we obey His commandments, the more we draw near to Him, the stronger
the connection becomes, the greater the joy we experience, and the more we
become like Him. We abide in Christ, and we prosper in the land.
Once we see commandments as a blessing, our
whole attitude towards obedience changes. Obedience stops being something that weighs on us because we
are supposed to do it and becomes something we want to do because we know it
brings blessings and joy, and we know it is the way to become more like Christ.
The kind of obedience that connects us to Christ and brings divine love, power,
and joy into our lives is not a reluctant, surface kind of obedience. It is
obedience of the whole heart and soul. It is deep obedience.
President Ezra Taft Benson described that
change of attitude and deep obedience in this way:
“When
obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God
will endow us with power.”3
We have been called to
discipleship and leadership in the great work of the Lord in the last
dispensation. And the way forward and upward, the way to prosper in the land, is deep obedience to the Lord.
As we read section 59 together, I will
highlight five dimensions of deep obedience:
(1)
love God with all your heart;
(2)
walk the strait and narrow path;
(3)
bring to the Lord a sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit;
(4)
keep the Sabbath Day holy; and
(5)
do all these things with gratitude and a cheerful heart.
