Rom. 5:3; 1 Cor. 10:13; D&C 136:31; Mosiah 23:21-22; Ether 12:6, 27; Alma 34:40-41; refer in this text to Mosiah 24:14-15; Alma 14:11
“If all the sick for whom we pray were healed, if all the righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled and the basic principle of the gospel, free agency, would be ended. No man would have to live by faith… . Should all prayers be immediately answered according to our selfish desires and our limited understanding, then there would be little or no suffering, sorrow, disappointment, or even death, and if these were not, there would also be no joy, success, resurrection, nor eternal life and Godhood.” (Spencer W. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle, p. 97)
“Prosperity, abundance, honor, and praise lead some men to the false security of haughty self-assurance and the abandonment of the inclination to pray. Conversely, turmoil, tribulation, sickness, and death crumble the castles of men’s pride and bring them to their knees to plead for power from on High.” (Thomas S. Monson, Ensign, Aug. 1995, pp. 4-5)
“When I held my little son in my arms, knowing that he may be sentenced to life in a defective body, I suffered anguish of soul. We had not prepared ourselves to deal with this… . Our pain was founded in a deep concern for the welfare of our son. I felt confident with the Lord’s help my son would be healed. I fasted and prayed for the Lord’s direction in giving Boyd a blessing. As I laid my hands on his head, everything I desired made me anxious for his body to be made whole. But, even in my overzealous state, I had to admit I could feel no spiritual promptings in blessing him to recover from Cystic Fibrosis… . This caused me more pain than when I had first discovered his illness! I felt personally responsible for Boyd’s disease. As I searched for an explanation I read these words of Brigham Young, ‘In many instances our anxiety is so great that we do not pause to know the spirit of revelation… . We have anxiety instead of faith. He lays his hands upon the sick, but they are not healed. It is in consequence of not being completely molded to the will of God’ (Journal of Discourses 12:125). I had prayed for a miracle and … in God’s own time the miracles came, but not in the way that I had expected. There is a God in Heaven who understands the destiny of each of his children. He also understands the pathway of challenges each will be confronted with in order to reach their destiny. (See Acts 17:26; Ether 12:27). Without this insight I could not hope to see the reason for this particular challenge in Boyd’s life. As his life unfolded, I grew to understand it better.” (K. Douglas Bassett, Kisses at the Window, pp. 15-16)