“I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.” (D&C 82:10). I don't think we should take the meaning that the Lord is bound as though through our obedience we have somehow shackled the Lord to do our bidding, like He's some genie in a lamp that is forced to grant our wishes. We have to remember that God is infinite. He is somehow trying to foster the growth and development of each of His children, giving them challenges to face, tender mercies to help them in time of need, space for them to be agents unto themselves, and grace to learn from, repent of, and attempt to atone for their mistakes, and He is doing this for every single person on Earth all at the same time. It is a lot of moving pieces to manage all at once, and we would be fools to believe that we know enough about the rules of the game and how it's played that we can start acting completely of our own accord with no regard for the rules in place or the positions of the other players or how this or that choice we make might come back to bite us later. When we do what the Lord tells us to do, we place bounds or limits on the infinite potentialities that propagate from every decision that we make. If we take no thought as to how our actions will affect or be affected by God's plan, then we have no promise that our choices will yield positive results. It is true that no matter what we have done, we can all make our way back to our Heavenly Father. There are a million different starting points to the gospel path. But the main thoroughfare to the Celestial Kingdom is a strait and narrow path. It is bounded on all sides. There are many good choices in this world, some better choices, and none of us have to be told that there are uncounted legions of bad and worse choices, but there are only a very few of the best choices. It is within the bounds of that very narrow band of best choices that the Lord will direct our path with the promise that everything He tells us to do is perfectly designed for realizing our full potential. Let's stop gambling with our lives by leaning on our own understanding as to what paths we should take and trust that the razor thin course that the Lord has laid out for us is the only true road to eternal joy and peace.
