Obedience Brings Blessings - Truth and Light

I learned that you can search for General Conference talks by topic. I searched this last Conference for a message on Trust, and I was lead to President Monson's talk, Obedience Brings Blessings. I decided to study that talk this morning, hoping that part of his message would give me directions on how I can increase my faith and trust. In a way, it did.

He that keepeth [God’s] commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things. D&C 93:28  

Truth and light sound like they're closely related to faith and testimony.

There is no need for you or for me, in this enlightened age when the fulness of the gospel has been restored, to sail uncharted seas or to travel unmarked roads in search of truth. A loving Heavenly Father has plotted our course and provided an unfailing guide—even obedience. A knowledge of truth and the answers to our greatest questions come to us as we are obedient to the commandments of God. 

Sometimes, I have to remember that the commandments aren't a set of meaningless rules that God would curse us if we disobeyed, but rather, they're guidelines and sign posts that warn us of the consequences of certain actions and behaviors.

If there's a cliff, a park ranger will put up a fence and a sign saying "Warning! Cliff! Do not cross!" It's not that he puts up that fence anywhere he wants to, and pushes us off a cliff if we ignore it. God isn't inventing excuses to punish us, He's looking out for ways to protect us (mostly from our own stupidity).

We learn obedience throughout our lives. Beginning when we are very young, those responsible for our care set forth guidelines and rules to ensure our safety. Life would be simpler for all of us if we would obey such rules completely. Many of us, however, learn through experience the wisdom of being obedient. 

Here, President Monson told a story of he and a friend lighting a fire in a field when he was too young to use matches.

Danny and I learned several difficult but important lessons that day—not the least of which was the importance of obedience.

There are rules and laws to help ensure our physical safety. Likewise, the Lord has provided guidelines and commandments to help ensure our spiritual safety so that we might successfully navigate this often-treacherous mortal existence and return eventually to our Heavenly Father. 

 President closed his talk be quoting his predecessor, and listing many blessings that come to Latter-Day Saints through obedience.

Said President Gordon B. Hinckley, “The happiness of the Latter-day Saints, the peace of the Latter-day Saints, the progress of the Latter-day Saints, the prosperity of the Latter-day Saints, and the eternal salvation and exaltation of this people lie in walking in obedience to the counsels of … God.” 

Obedience is a hallmark of prophets; it has provided strength and knowledge to them throughout the ages. It is essential for us to realize that we, as well, are entitled to this source of strength and knowledge. It is readily available to each of us today as we obey God’s commandments. 

The knowledge which we seek, the answers for which we yearn, and the strength which we desire today to meet the challenges of a complex and changing world can be ours when we willingly obey the Lord’s commandments. I quote once again the words of the Lord: “He that keepeth [God’s] commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things.”

Seems like the answers I'm looking for and the strength I hope to gain by receiving those answers can be gained only by obedience. It's a little bit of a catch-22, if I understand that phrase correctly. I want to increase my faith and trust in God so I can be more motivated to be obedient. I can strengthen my faith through obedience to the commandment, but obedience is an act of faith. You need to have at least some of one in order to gain more of the other. Right now, I'm a little bit worried that I'm dangerously low on both. Maybe there are little commandments, like daily prayer and scripture study, that I can obey to help me gain the faith and strength of will-power to obey the more difficult ones. I should pray to ask God to remind me to be more regular with those. I bet it would help at least some.