“More blessed and holy” (“More Holiness Give Me”, Phillip Paul Bliss). “And thus ye shall become instructed in the law of my church, and be sanctified by that which ye have received, and ye shall bind yourselves to act in all holiness before me” (D&C 43:9). For those of us who are refraining from asking the Lord for blessings because we consider ourselves insufficiently worthy or holy, we have it all backwards. The reason that those who seem to have many blessings and also seem to be very holy is not because they have earned their blessings through their holiness and personal righteousness, but rather because the very act of receiving the blessings of the Lord with a grateful heart and true humility leads to sanctification. The paralytic man who received the blessings of healing was also forgiven of his sins and thus became sanctified and holy by receiving the offered blessings. The Lord causes the rain to fall upon the just and the unjust. The righteous and the holy are those who receive not only the outward or temporal blessing but also allow the virtue and the power of the Lord's grace to cleanse and purify and sanctify their souls. All good things come from God, and they are good things because they have the power to make all who receive them to be good also. The Lord blesses the holy and the holy become holier still by receiving their blessings, which opens them up to receive more blessings, which makes them holier, and on and on. I know that every thing that the Lord gives us is designed for our good and if we will receive it, it will sanctify until the only way to describe us is as both blessed and holy.
