There is a positive lesson in this verse, and that is that the spirit teaches us to pray. This comes, however, in the context of a grieving Nephi. Nephi has just chastised his people, after having been constrained by the Spirit. In the spirit of that chastisement, and perhaps in prophetic foreknowledge, Nephi is continuing to explain the reason why he grieves. This verse is the continuation of the declaration that his people are too "wicked" to ask the Lord. This is a reiteration of the admonition that they must seek the spirit to tell them what to do - but a recognition that there are many who (like Laman and Lemuel?) will simply not ask. Nephi declares that it is the devil who is behind this reluctance to ask the Lord for that which is needed.