2.11 Obedience - Not Always Comfortable or Easy

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry his flavor, his truth, and his love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as savory salt. Hello my friends, great to have you with me.

Today let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. Today we're going to dive into 1 Nephi chapter 2 and take a look at what's happening here with Nephi and Lehi's story. I always find it interesting how Lehi, we find out that he's a prophet, and then he's trying to preach about the destruction of Jerusalem, and yet we get a great insight here in chapter 2, to perhaps how Nephi becomes the way that he does, in watching the way that his father responds in terms of his relationship with the Lord.

I know that was kind of muddled how I said that, but I think Nephi gets a great example from Lehi here. And we see it right on the front end of 1 Nephi 2. Lehi is going to receive the famous commandment here to leave and depart Jerusalem and go into the wilderness.

I mean, for the beginning of a story, it's a great hook at the beginning of a story, but it sounds absurd. Like, here's a story we find out about Nephi and his dad, Lehi. And by the way, the very first thing they find out from the Lord is: Leave Jerusalem, go into the wilderness.

And so it's interesting to see the response that Lehi has here. It's in 1 Nephi 2:3. It says, "And it came to pass that he was obedient unto the word of the Lord.

Wherefore, he did as the Lord commanded him." Now we find out further in the story here that Lehi didn't just obey. He packed up the family. He took everybody.

He takes everyone. They leave behind all of their wealth, all of their riches, and off they go. And ultimately, we find out — I mean, historically, we find out — that just a few years after they left, 587 or so, is when Jerusalem is sacked by the Babylonians.

That one's a historical fact. We know that's when the Babylonians come in and sack Jerusalem. And look, obedience to the Lord doesn't always mean for us a matter of life or death.

But obedience doesn't always look comfortable and easy. And yet when we read Lehi's story and then we see Nephi's story, obedience becomes priority for them. I love this because it helped me remember when I was talking to my daughter who's on her mission right now in Argentina.

She was being trained, and her and her trainer, they were going through ups and downs as she's learning the language, and her trainer couldn't speak English very well. And there's kind of the give and take and the wrestle a little bit, just trying to figure things out. And they sat down after a week of kind of being a little bit — they weren't, you know, blatantly breaking mission rules, but they just weren't being as obedient as they could be.

And they sat down as a companionship. According to my daughter's story, as we, you know, talked to her the week after, she said, "We really recommitted to be obedient. We wanted to follow all of the things the Lord had commanded us to do." And she said, "And this week has been absolutely amazing.

And I'm so amazed at how fast the Lord responds to obedience." My friends, give the Lord an opportunity to bless you. Do it by being obedient to him. It's not always comfortable.

It's not always easy, but obedience will always pay off for your advantage. That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your heart and rejoice.

Cleave unto the covenants you have made and together we will be savory salt. For more information, visit us at www.fema.org.