Scripture Insight: Moroni 10:22

22 And if ye have no hope ye must needs be in despair; and despair cometh because of iniquity.

Discussion
I came across this scripture while reading a talk recently on lds.org. It made me remember another talk I read many years ago while still on the mission. In that particular talk there was a story about a missionary who was complaining about his companion who took forever to get ready in the morning and they were never able to leave the house on time. What was happening is that the companion was praying for 30 or minutes each day when he awoke in the morning.

Well that doesn't sound too bad, right? I mean, come on, the guy is praying. But the Mission President still wanted to address the issue because it was causing problems within the companionship and while praying is nice and all, 30 minutes can excessive when you have a tight schedule like missionaries do. So the MP sits down with this young Elder and asks why he is praying for so long. His response was that he had to wait until he could feel the spirit in order prayer properly.

Now the MP immediate response was to ask about any immorality or sins that the Elder had not repented up. The Elder denied. But either through revelation or knowledge of the scripture above (probably both), the MP probed deeper with the young Elder who finally confessed to some serious transgressions that he had not repented of.

It stuck out to me then as it does now that sin impedes our ability to have hope and faith in the gospel. I recently interacted with someone who was struggling with their faith and testimony that the church was true and the President Monson was indeed a prophet. I thought then, but not mention it to the person, that perhaps there was some sin or transgression that they had not repented of that could have been holding them back. Although hard, sometime we have to take that first step into the darkness in order for the light to come.

Although we may feel hopeless and in despair in our iniquities, I know that if we take that first step of repentance by exercising even the smallest sliver of faith the Lord will bless us.