The Freedom of Obedience

This is a continuation of The Invitation, a previously posted blog challenge from Dixie Dawn.  We are now on Day 4.

 Please feel free to read the other days and start at anytime! You can incorporate this challenge in ways that will help you.  Work it monthly, weekly, or daily as posted, the important thing is that your relationship with Christ is strengthened.  

All material is original blog material written by Dixie.  Scripture suggestions are from my personal study, all thoughts and challenges are from my personal history and my future as I too continue to strive for more closeness to Christ.


Thought for the day:  As we strive to walk in Jesus’ footsteps, we must work to improve our obedience. As in all things the Savior is our pattern, thus it is also so with obedience.  The Apostle Paul wrote of the Savior:  “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience.”  In our own finite way, we too can learn obedience even as Christ did.  As young children we learn respect for authority as we obey our parents, earning their trust, it is the same with the Lord.  As we learn respect for his authority we must be inclined to obey the principles of his teachings and as we do so, we earn his trust and will be blessed more than we can imagine.  We will become free from the bondage of satan.    When obedience becomes our goal, it is no longer an irritation; instead of a stumbling block, it becomes a building block.  Let us this day begin again to build our relationship with the Savior by looking within ourselves and finding those things, even little things we can change, helping us to become more obedient.

Scripture Suggestions: (reading made easy, just click a link! ) Hebrews 5:8  2 Corinthians 7:15      2 Corinthians 10:5   Romans 6:16   D&C 89:18
1 John 1   John 7   Liberty  Salvation

Challenge for the day:  Use the penny in your shoe to help you think.  As you feel the penny ponder on the things you need to improve within yourself that will help you become more obedient.  At the end of the day pick one thing, just one, and write it in your journal.  Make a plan and give yourself a time frame to work on this one thing and improve on it.  Such as reading scriptures everyday, keeping the sabbath day more holy, prayer twice a day morning and night, changing tv shows you watch or putting the internet after your study and prayer.  Things, even little as they are, can be huge, so improving on them will make a noticeable difference.   As you strive to do this the spirit will come to you and you will be strengthened and changed with a greater understanding for the Principles of the gospel.  Obedience will become a goal not a burden…..expect trouble from satan.  He will play havoc in the lives of those trying to improve and walk with Christ.  However a strong self-discipline and determination to be with the Lord will push him back.  Don’t give up, you can do this.

Journaling thought:  Is there one thing I could do better just for today? Does God simply want us to obey a set of commandments, or does he hope our obedience will build certain character traits?

To Keep you thinking:

‘Faith is a gift of God bestowed as a reward for personal righteousness. It is always given when righteousness is present, and the greater the measure of obedience to God’s laws the greater will be the endowment of faith’ If we desire more faith, we must be more obedient. … Faith requires an attitude of exact obedience, even in the small, simple things. …“Elder Bruce R. McConkie ”

“As patterns of obedience develop, the specific blessings associated with obedience are realized and belief emerges. Desire, hope, and belief are forms of faith, but faith as a principle of power comes from a consistent pattern of obedient behavior and attitudes. Personal righteousness is a choice. Faith is a gift from God, and one possessed of it can receive enormous spiritual power” (in Conference Report, Apr. 2009, 37; or Ensign, May 2009, 39).

This will be a great day leading to even better times!
Love from Dixie