Holiness is in the striving and the struggle to keep the commandments and to honor the covenants we have made with God. Holiness is making the choices that will keep the Holy Ghost as our guide. Holiness is setting aside our natural tendencies and becoming “a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord.” “Every moment of [our lives] must be holiness to the Lord.”
someone should have made that a Pinterest quote by now.
Elder D. Todd Christofferson has taught: “Our Heavenly Father is a God of high expectations. … He proposes to make us holy so that we may ‘abide a celestial glory’ and ‘dwell in his presence.’” Lectures on Faith explains, “No being can enjoy his glory without possessing his perfections and holiness.” Our Father in Heaven knows us. He loves us, and He has provided for us all that is required so that we can become holy as He is holy.
We are daughters of Heavenly Father, and each of us has a divine heritage of holiness. Our Father in Heaven has declared, “Behold, I am God; Man of Holiness is my name.” In the premortal world, we loved our Father and worshipped Him. We desired to be like Him. Out of perfect paternal love, He gave His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Savior and Redeemer. He is the Son of Man of Holiness. His “name is Holy,” “the Holy One of Israel.”
We recognize the multitude of tests, temptations, and tribulations that could pull us away from all that is virtuous and praiseworthy before God. But our mortal experiences offer us the opportunity to choose holiness. Most often it is the sacrifices we make to keep our covenants that sanctify us and make us holy.
If we will keep the associated covenants, the sacred priesthood ordinances will change us, sanctify us, and prepare us to enter the presence of the Lord. So we bear one another’s burdens; we strengthen one another. We retain a remission of sins when we give spiritual and temporal relief to the poor, the hungry, the naked, and the sick. We keep ourselves unspotted from the world when we keep the Sabbath day and worthily receive the sacrament on the Lord’s holy day.
Holiness is a gift of the Spirit. We accept this gift when we choose to do those things that will increase the sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost in our lives.
Sisters, if we would be holy, we must learn to sit at the feet of the Holy One of Israel and give time to holiness. Do we set aside the phone, the never-ending to-do list, and the cares of worldliness? Prayer, study, and heeding the word of God invite His cleansing and healing love into our souls. Let us take time to be holy, that we may be filled with His sacred and sanctifying Spirit. With the Holy Ghost as our guide, we will be prepared to receive the Savior in the beauty of holiness.
When King Benjamin’s people heard his words, they fell to the ground, so great was their humility and reverence for the grace and the glory of our God. They recognized their carnal state. Do we see our utter dependence on the grace and mercy of Christ, our Lord? Do we recognize that every good gift, temporal and spiritual, comes to us through Christ? Do we remember that according to the Father’s eternal plan, peace in this life and the glories of eternity are ours only in and through His holy Son?
May we join with the people of King Benjamin as they cried aloud with one voice, “O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified; for we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who created heaven and earth, and all things.”
Heavenly Father has given each of us the capacity to become holy. May we do our best to keep our covenants and take the Holy Ghost as our guide. With faith in Jesus Christ, we become saints through His Atonement, that we may receive immortality and eternal life and give God our Father the glory due His name. May our lives ever be a sacred offering, that we may stand before the Lord in the beauty of holiness. In the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.
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