The Blessed and Happy State

You know how there are some chapters in scripture where you may underline a verse or two that stands out to you, and then there are chapters where it seems the number of verses you mark surpass the number you don't mark. That's how Mosiah chapter 2 was for me as I was reading it tonight. I was again impressed with the verses about service like verse 17 where it says "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God. But tonight there were some new highlights and insights for me toward the end of the chapter. I was struck by the stark contrast between the joy people feel when they are doing what they should and the misery they feel when they are not. It starts in verse 36:

"After ye have known and have been taught in all these things, if ye should transgress and go contrary to that which has been spoken, that ye do withdraw ourselves from the spirit of the Lord, that it may have no place in you to guide you in wisdom's paths that ye may be blessed, prospered and preserved .... the Lord has no place in him, for he dwelleth not in unholy temples."

I got a couple of lessons out of that. First that we're the ones who withdraw ourselves from the spirit. It's like the old saying - if you feel far away from God it isn't Him who has moved. And second that when we do that, we don't have the spirit to guide us in making wise choices (wisdom's paths). That's a scary place to be. In verse 38 it talks about the lively sense of guilt a person feels in those situations.

But then verse 41, in marked contrast, talks about those who are doing what they should:

"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."

I guess the Lord really wanted to drive this point home to me tonight because right after reading in the Book of Mormon, I picked up my book by Sheri Dew "God Wants a Powerful People" and began reading from where I had left off. Guess what? She quoted that same scripture, Mosiah 2:41, and then made this observation in words better than I could have chosen.

"It is so much easier to be righteous than to sin, so much easier to deal with a clear conscience than one ravaged by guilt, so much easier to feel peace of mind and heart when we are living up to who we are, rather than coping with the emotional and spiritual ravages of regret, knowing we have lived beneath our divine nature."

It motivates me to always choose the right and to always be able to feel like King Benjamin did in the this chapter "walking with a clear conscience before God" (verse 27) , knowing the happiness that comes from doing so.