Neal A. Maxwell wrote:
The Lord reminded us that our prayers will be granted if our lives are righteous and if we ask in faith for that which is expedient. (Doctrine & Covenants 88:64-65,78.) He attached the same condition to his visit to the Nephites when he said the prayers of the faithful will be granted if they ask for that which is right.’ (3 Nephi 18:20.)
We are also given a vision of becoming sufficiently spiritual so that our petitions are inspired beforehand (Doctrine & Covenants 50:30), and thus they can be granted even as we ask (Doctrine & Covenants 46:30).
The Lord has spoken of temptations “to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart.” (Deuteronomy 8:2) If we link that scripture up with one in Jeremiah in which the Lord says, “I the Lord search the hearts, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways” (Jeremiah 11:20.17:10) we see the ultimate expression of agency and Divine justice. If each of us really finally receives that which has been really wanted, none could quarrel with the justice of God. Trials and tribulations then to squeeze the artificiality of us, leaving the essence of what we really are and clarifying what we really yearn for. Therefore the record will be clear. ~Neal A. Maxwell, A Year of Powerful Faith, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2013. p.299
