By virtue of sacrifice

It is by “the virtue of the blood” that Jesus Christ has shed that He is able to plead before the Father, in His own name, for those who believe in Him (D&C 38:4/3-5).

~ Matthew Brown, ‘The Plan of Salvation’, p. 76

In reading this, I thought that perhaps, in a similar way (as similar as anything we do can be to the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which is to say, on a completely different scale), it’s by the evidence of our personal ‘Gethsemane periods’ or experiences – the drops of anguish from our souls that they squeeze out – that we can come to the Father with confidence to ask what we would.

‘See, I have suffered/endured/lived the hardest things for me’ – a currency we can use which proves our soul-stretching.

Verily I say unto you, all among them who know their hearts are honest, and are broken, and their spirits contrite, and are willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice – yea, every sacrifice which I the Lord, shall command – they are accepted of me.

~ Doctrine and Covenants 97:8

Behold, I have seen your sacrifices, and will forgive all your sins; I have seen your sacrifices in obedience to that which I have told you. Go, therefore, and I make a way for your escape, as I accepted the offering of Abraham of his son Isaac.

~ Doctrine and Covenants, 132:50