Peace Like A River

"Oh that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments-then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea."

1 Nephi 20:18

 Our mission over this past month or so has been focusing so much on concentration and fully consecrating our efforts to the Lord. At church on Sunday the Stake President spoke about obedience to the commandments. He talked about how sometimes we have these little sins, or acts of disobedience, that would keep us from totally freeing ourselves and living in such a way that the spirit can more fully be with us. He related these little sins to small stones that we keep in our pockets. Every so often we pull them out and shine them up a bit then put them back not being totally willing to let go of them in order to feel the fullness of Gods love and his blessings. So often though with these we feel happy and don't see any immediate effects of our actions, but we wont know just how much we are missing out on until we let go of them.

IN a missionary meeting on Wednesday some missionaries talked about this topic again and invited us to look into our lives and our missionary work and eliminate those small stones that may be keeping us from receiving all the blessings the Lord has in store for us. As I took this to heart I made a commitment to myself that I would not walk past anyone without offering something to them. Easier said than done! That evening my companion and I were out contacting people. It was very dark outside as we were walking back to our car when we noticed a man in his garage with his back to us. A thousand thoughts went through our heads, "Its too dark, you could startle him," "He could be very angry with you and call the cops." Needless to say we walked past him but before we got to our car the words to the scripture above came to mind. I had made a commitment to my Heavenly Father to talk to everyone and I was going back on this commitment. We went back and talked to him. After we got done and were walking back to our car I felt the peace that the Lord promises in the scripture. I had been obedient to Gods commandments through out my mission but last night I learned a valuable lesson about obedience to Gods commandments. I learned that he keeps his promises and that we will never know that until we are obedient to his commandments. Obedience to commandments does more for us than for the Lord. The Lord tells us that we receive no witness until after the trial of our faith. Sometimes that trial will be a lot longer than we think it will be but when we get the witness we will never go back!  For me the trial of my faith of obedience took 16 months but the witness that God absolutely keeps his promises will last forever! I would hope that we would each take some time to evaluate the rocks that we keep in our pockets that may be keeping us from gaining the witness.  If you cant think of anything, pray about it. The Lord will let you know! Then be willing to act on that prompting to drop the rock, then shall" [your] peace be like a river, and [your] righteousness as the waves of the sea." I know that God does keep his promises! May we be obedient to the commandments of the Lord and have full access to his blessings and love!