There are a few promises in the Book of Mormon that are repeated over and over again. Apparently, we don't learn without repetition. This promise is a marvelous promise with grand and eternal implications too often taken for granted. It is taken for granted because the reader does not really believe what the Lord has promised. This is the famous tendency to believe in Christ but not to believe Christ, "The real question is 'Do we believe Christ?' It is one thing to believe in him and quite another to believe him (Robinson 8-12)." (Book of Mormon Symposium Series, edited by PR Cheesman, MS Nyman, and CD Tate, Jr., 1988, p. 178).
Indeed, we should remember the words of Enos, that God could not lie (Enos 1:6). When the Lord promises to give us whatever we want, which is right, as long as we ask in faith believing in his name, he means what he says. We have no reason to doubt, no reason to waver—else we become like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed (James 1:6).
David E. Sorensen
"Christ taught the Nephites that prayer is more than just a means to receive our Father in Heaven's generosity; rather, prayer itself is an act of faith as well as an act of righteousness…This is because the act of prayer itself can change and purify us, both individually and as a group. As our Bible Dictionary states, 'The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that are made conditional on our asking for them' (p. 753). In other words, prayers bring our desires and the desires of our Father into harmony, thus bringing us both the blessing we are seeking and also the blessing of greater unity with the Father…The greatest blessing and benefit is not the physical or spiritual blessings that may come as answers to our prayers but in the changes to our soul that come as we learn to be dependent on our Heavenly Father for strength…The very act of praying will improve us. (Ensign, May 1993, pp. 30-1 as taken from Latter-day Commentary on the Book of Mormon compiled by K. Douglas Bassett, p. 437)
Neal A. Maxwell
"Granted, finite minds do not fully understand the infinite mind of God. We are not fully comprehending when our agency brushes against His divinity. Yet we should trust Him as our provincial petitions meet His universal omniscience.
"…It is necessary for us thus to place our desires and needs genuinely and unselfishly before God in prayer. It is in this process of placing our desires before Him, to a greater extent than we usually do, that we can listen and learn concerning His will. Such could not be done if we were ritualistically submissive or only partially involved.
"Of course, after we place our petitions before Him we are to be submissive: 'Thy will be done.' But this is the last part of the process of petition, not the first.
"Learning to pray is, therefore, the work of a lifetime. If we keep on praying, we will keep on discovering." (That Ye May Believe, p. 179)
Neal A. Maxwell
"We may at times, if we are not careful, try to pray away pain or what seems like an impending tragedy, but which is, in reality, an opportunity. We must do as Jesus did in that respect-also preface our prayers by saying, 'If it be possible,' let the trial pass from us-by saying, 'Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt,' and bowing in a sense of serenity to our Father in Heaven's wisdom, because at times God will not be able to let us pass by a trial or a challenge. If we were allowed to bypass certain trials, everything that had gone on up to that moment in our lives would be wiped out. It is because he loves us that at times he will not intercede as we may wish him to. That, too, we learn from Gethsemane and from Calvary. (But for a Small Moment, p. 445)
Neal A. Maxwell
"By praying, we begin to experience what it is like when we see the interplay of man's moral agency and God's directing hand. These are things to be learned only by experience. We learn how important our intentions are, since we are instructed to pray for that 'which is right' (3 Nephi 18:20). Our prayers will be better if they are in fact inspired prayers.
"Thus worshipping, serving, studying, praying, each in its own way squeezes selfishness out of us; it pushes aside our preoccupations with the things of the world." (Men and Women of Christ, p. 98)