Obedience

Freedom That You Can Hardly Dream Of

“Freedom that you can hardly dream of — the freedom to feel and know, the freedom to do, and the freedom to be, at least a thousandfold more than we offer him. Strangely enough, the key to freedom is obedience....”

Boyd K. Packer, Address at Brigham Young University, 1971; quoted in Burton, ed., We Believe, s.v. Obedience to God

Spiritual Safety

Freedom from social diseases, shame, degradation, and feelings of guilt. We are able to learn, progress, and achieve.

We also gain knowledge.

Obedience brings peace in decision making.

Obedience brings spiritual safety, and the precious gifts of freedom and liberty.

President James E. Faust - "Obedience: The Path to Freedom" - April 1999 Conference.

Physical Safety

Safety from Sin and Sorrow.

Physical Safety.

Henry B. Eyring, April 1997 Conference

Builds Integrity

“(Obedience brings) Peace—peace in a world where that word is hardly understood, let alone experienced. When all the challenges pour down on you, you will have a quiet inner feeling of support. You will be prompted to know what to do. You can live in a world of turmoil and great challenge and be at peace.”

Builds Integrity.

“Discipline is another fruit you harvest through obedience. To be disciplined is to provide order and consistency to your life. It will permit higher priority matters to rule over those that are of lesser consequence. Righteous discipline is the backbone of noble character. Your discipline will help you to consistently make correct choices in the use of your time and will facilitate the proper use of your agency. Self-discipline negates the need for forced discipline.”

“Another fruit (of obedience) is the capacity to work and to receive the joy that comes from productive work.”

“Another fruit of your resolve to be obedient is to be demanding of yourself and to be charitable to others, to look for personal improvements that are required and be forgiving with those around you. You will develop a love of service, of giving, of reaching out. Your first thought will not be of yourself as is so common in the world today, but of others around you.”

“Other fruits you will receive when needed are inspiration to know what to do and the power or capacity to do it.”

Richard G. Scott - Fireside Address at BYU, June 3, 1990 - "Fruits of Obedience"

He Is Quick to Reward Us

In modern revelation we are told very frankly, brothers and sisters, that ”when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated“ (D&C 130:21). I don't know how it is for you, but I have felt so often in my life so greatly blessed for what little obedience I have given.

My conclusion with regard to that verse is that the Lord's ratio of blessings to our obedience is a very generous ratio indeed. He is so quick to reward us, so quick to reassure us, and so anxious to take delight when we serve Him.

So if you puzzle over that verse, as I have in life, including in recent times, the only bottom line I can give you is that the ratio of blessings to our minuscule obedience is a very, very generous ratio indeed.

Neal A. Maxwell, BYU Dev. - January 12, 1999 - "Sharing Insights From My Life"

Make Us More Godlike

... will make us more Godlike, will fit and qualify and prepare us to go back and dwell in the presence of our Heavenly Father and to receive that plaudit: 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant.'

Heber J. Grant, Era, 42:713; Gospel Standards, p. 40

Receive Strength

Through faith-inspired obedience you may receive strength, as did Nephi, to face your difficulties; to overcome problems of self-image, depression, and temptation; to cast your burdens on the Lord and be “filled with the power of God” (1 Ne. 17:48).

“If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land.“ (Isaiah 1:19)

Alexander B. Morrison, “SOS,” New Era, Jan. 1990, 4

All Blessings are Predicated on Obedience

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that obedience to the commandments leads to blessings from God. He said: “There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated”

Doctrine and Covenants 130:20–21

Shall See My Face

Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am;

Doctrine and Covenants 93:1

Advantage in the World to Come

And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.

Doctrine and Covenants 130:19

The Lord is Bound

I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.

Doctrine and Covenants 82:10

All Who Will Have a Blessing

For all who will have a blessing at my hands shall abide the law which was appointed for that blessing, and the conditions thereof, as were instituted from before the foundation of the world.

Doctrine and Covenants 132:5

Ye Shall Abide in My Love

If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.

John 15:10

By Obedience, Mankind Might Be Saved

That through his atonement, and by obedience to the principles of the gospel, mankind might be saved.

Doctrine and Covenants 138:4

They Are Received into Heaven

And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

Mosiah 2:41

Ye May Prolong Your Days

Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess.

Deuteronomy 5:33

Ye Shall Be a Treasure Unto Me

5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:

6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

Exodus 19:5 - 6

Glory, Honour and Peace

6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds:

7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:

8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,

9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;

10 But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile

Romans 2:6 - 10

Receive Health in their Navel

And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones;

Doctrine and Covenants 89:18

God Giveth Eternal Life Unto All the Obedient

And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.

Moses 5:11

Nourish and Strengthen Them

And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness.

1 Nephi 17:3

Reap Eternal Happiness

And in one year were thousands and tens of thousands of souls sent to the eternal world, that they might reap their rewards according to their works, whether they were good or whether they were bad, to reap eternal happiness or eternal misery, according to the spirit which they listed to obey, whether it be a good spirit or a bad one.

For every man receiveth wages of him whom he listeth to obey, and this according to the words of the spirit of prophecy; therefore let it be according to the truth. And thus endeth the fifth year of the reign of the judges.

Alma 3:26 - 27