Lord has counseled us to pray lest we be tempted beyond that which we can withstand (see Alma 13:27–28; 3 Nephi 18:15,18). Remember that each person has a different level of temptation in different aspects of his or her life. Breaking the Word of Wisdom is always a temptation to those who have allowed that habit to take hold of them. Patriarch Eldred G. Smith tells this simple story of the power of prayer and how it helps us overcome temptation:
A young man told me his experience in becoming a member of the Church, which is typical of many in their activities of investigating the Church. He said the missionaries came to the lesson on the Word of Wisdom. He and his wife were both users of tobacco. After the meeting was over and the missionaries had left, they talked it over with each other and decided among themselves, “Well, if that is what the Lord wants and if this is the Lord’s Church, we will try it.” He said that he was not particularly concerned about himself, he thought he could do it easily. He was worried about his wife; she had never tried to quit before. On the other hand, he had quit several times. After proving to himself that he could quit, of course, he went back to the use of cigarettes again. But he said in this case it was just the reverse. His wife quit without any apparent difficulty, but he had tremendous difficulty. He became nervous and irritable. He could not rest. He was cranky among his fellow workers. He could not sleep at night. But inasmuch as his wife had quit, he was not going to be outdone by her. So, one night, he became so restless, so disturbed that he could not sleep, and his wife suggested to him that he pray about it. He thought that was a good joke. He ridiculed the idea of prayer; he said, “This is something I have to do. Nobody can help me with this. I can do this.” But as the night passed and he had done everything he could to stimulate sleep and rest without any success, finally in despair, he humbled himself enough to kneel at the side of the bed and pray vocally. According to his own testimony, he said that he got up from his prayer, got into bed, went to sleep, and has never been tempted by cigarettes since. He has absolutely lost his taste for tobacco. He said, “The Word of Wisdom was not a health program for me. It was a lesson of humility.” He said, “I had to learn humility.” That is what it meant to him. As it is with many of the requirements of the Church, we have to demonstrate humble obedience. (CR, April 1955, 42)