Marc Stewart made the decision in the spring of 1999 to serve a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
As 19-year-old Stewart evaluated his life goals, making the choice to serve was difficult. However, Stewart said he let God prevail in his life, made the choice to serve and received blessings because of his decision to go on the mission.
He invited listeners to also let God prevail in their lives during his Tuesday devotional talk.
“The decision to serve has influenced my life in more ways than I can count or convey,” Stewart said in his devotional talk. “Putting my trust in the Lord and serving a mission helped me to come to know Him intimately, helped me trust Him completely with my life and deepened my faith and knowledge of His gospel.”
The speaker also invited listeners to “hear Him.” Each person hears the Spirit differently, he said.
Stewart encouraged listeners to minimize distractions so they could find how God speaks to them personally.
“It’s important that we find a way to shut down the noise and distractions, to unplug from our digital age that we live in, but then to listen, to prepare ourselves spiritually and then to listen for the promptings of the Holy Ghost,” he said in an interview with BYU-Idaho Radio.
Stewart’s last invitation to listeners was to turn their focus to the temple. In the same interview, he explained how his experiences in the temple bring him peace.
“It almost seems like when you walk through the doors of the temple, you leave all of the concerns of the world behind,” he said. “For a few minutes or hours, you have the chance to focus on the eternal blessings, eternal covenants and the significance of those blessings in our lives.”
You can listen to more messages from upcoming devotionals on KBYI 94.3 FM or stream them live on Tuesdays at 11:30 a.m. here.