answers to prayer

An important and comforting doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that our Heavenly Father has perfect love for His children. Because of that perfect love, He blesses us not only according to our desires and needs but also according to His infinite wisdom. As simply stated by the prophet Nephi, “I know that [God] loveth his children.”¹

One aspect of that perfect love is our Heavenly Father’s involvement in the details of our lives, even when we may not be aware of it or understand it. We seek the Father’s divine guidance and help through heartfelt, earnest prayer. When we honor our covenants and strive to be more like our Savior, we are entitled to a constant ² stream of divine guidance through the influence and inspiration of the Holy Ghost.

The scriptures teach us, “For your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him,”³ and He “knoweth all things, for all things are present before [His] eyes.”⁴

The prophet Mormon is an example of this. He did not live to see the results of his work. Yet he understood that the Lord was carefully leading him along. When he felt inspired to include the small plates of Nephi with his record, Mormon wrote: “And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will.”⁵ Although Mormon did not know of the future loss of the 116 manuscript pages, the Lord did and prepared a way to overcome that obstacle long before it occurred.

The Father is aware of us, knows our needs, and will help us perfectly. Sometimes that help is given in the very moment or at least soon after we ask for divine help. Sometimes our most earnest and worthy desires are not answered in the way we hope, but we find that God has greater blessings in store. And sometimes our righteous desires are not granted in this life. I will illustrate”. . . .

[Elder Hales then shares three examples. . . . His missionary son was unable to buy a winter coat (unavailable) before leaving home and it was sent just as he was leaving for Paris. Not having time to try it on before needing it, when the need did come, it was far too small and he asked his parents for funds to purchase another.]

Elder Hales said: “With some irritation, I wrote to him and told him to give the first coat away, inasmuch as he couldn’t use it.” We later received this email from him: “It is very, very cold here. … The wind seems to go right through us, although my new coat is great and quite heavy. … I gave my old one to [another missionary in our apartment] who said that he had been praying for a way to get a better coat. He is a convert of several years and he has only his mom … and the missionary who baptized him who are supporting him on his mission and so the coat was an answer to a prayer, so I felt very happy about that.”^{6 [personal correspondence]}

Heavenly Father knew that this missionary, who was serving in France some 6,200 miles (10,000 km) away from home, would urgently need a new overcoat for a cold winter in Paris but that this missionary would not have the means to buy one. Heavenly Father also knew that our son would receive from the clothing store in Provo, Utah, an overcoat that would be far too small. He knew that these two missionaries would be serving together in Paris and that the coat would be an answer to the humble and earnest prayer of a missionary who had an immediate need.

. . . .The Savior taught: “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. “Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.”⁷

. . . . In other situations, when our worthy desires are not granted in the way we had hoped, it may actually be for our ultimate benefit. For example, Joseph the son of Jacob was envied and hated by his brothers to the point that they plotted Joseph’s murder. Instead, they sold him as a slave into Egypt.⁸ If ever a person might have felt that his prayers were not answered in the way he had hoped, it could have been Joseph. In reality, his apparent misfortune resulted in great blessings to him and saved his family from starvation. Later, after having become a trusted leader in Egypt, with great faith and wisdom he said to his brothers:

“Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. . . For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. . . “And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. . . So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God.”⁹ 

continued . . .