If we hear and act on the Lord’s teachings, our lives will be built on a firm foundation.

“Someone once said you can’t visually tell the difference between a strand of cobweb and a strand of powerful cable—until stress is put on the strand. Our testimonies are that way, and for most of us, the days of stress for our testimonies have already begun. It may not be the death of a loved one. We might not yet have been asked to give up something that is really precious to us, though the time for such a test may well come to us by and by. Our current stress is more likely to come in the form of overpowering temptations, which show us that a shallow acceptance of the gospel does not have the power to cope with the full fury of the powers of darkness. Perhaps there is a mission call to a place of illness and disappointment, when we had planned on a mission to a place of unbounded opportunity. Or perhaps there are too many questions to which our limited knowledge simply has no answer, and those who claim to know more than we do taunt us with what appears to be a persuasive certainty.

“When those times come, our testimonies must be more than the cobweb strands of a fair-weather faith. They need to be like strands of cable, powerful enough to resist the shafts of him who would destroy us. In our days of stress and trouble, we must be built ‘upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, … that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, … and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you, … because of the rock upon which ye are built.’ (Helaman 5:12.)” (Bruce C Hafen, The Believing Heart, 2nd ed. [1990], 21–22).

The Savior taught us how to pray.

The Lord Himself instructed us in the Sermon on the Mount on how to pray. Read  Matthew 6:5–13 , using the accompanying chart as a guide.

Things the Lord Taught about Prayer
Matthew 6:5–6	Pray in secret to avoid appearing to be righteous before men.
Matthew 6:7	Pray from the heart, avoiding “vain repetitions.”
Matthew 6:9	Pray to our Father in Heaven.
Matthew 6:10	Remember that God knows best and pray for His will to be done.
Matthew 6:11	Pray for material or temporal needs.
Matthew 6:12	Pray for forgiveness from sins.
Matthew 6:13	Pray to avoid temptation.

Pray in secret

Vaughn J. Featherstone wrote:

“Now, the Lord taught us to pray in secret. What happens to us when we pray in secret? First, our faith is put to the test. How foolish people would feel who pray alone and really do not believe in God. We can pray in public and people might think we believe, but praying alone takes faith. When we pray alone, there is no one to impress with our command of the language, with our beautiful phrases or eloquence. We simply talk with a loving, interested Father about what is troubling us most. We take problems that no one else, not another living soul, can help us with. We become like little children, feeling a dependence and need for someone wiser and with power and influence. We do not have to worry about embarrassment if our prayers are not answered the way we think they should be, because only we and God know for what we pray. When tears come, there is no embarrassment. We can be totally honest, knowing that we cannot lie to or deceive the Spirit or God. He knows us for our real worth. He knows who and what we really are, not what we seem to be. When we have personal problems or struggles, we can pray and know that these things are kept totally confidential. We can discuss our weaknesses, our sins, our frustrations, our needs, and know that He will listen and respond.” (The Incomparable Christ: Our Master and Model, 60 – 61.)

Pray from the heart

The Lord’s prayer was intended to be an example, not a set of words and phrases to be recited repetitiously.

Pray to our Father in Heaven

Elder J Devn Cornish in the October 2011 General Conference said:

Jesus addressed His Father in an attitude of worship, recognizing His greatness and giving Him praise and thanks. Surely this matter of reverencing God and giving heartfelt and specific thanks is one of the keys to effective prayer.

Pray for His will to be done

Francis M. Lyman said

“What a splendid condition would obtain among the Latter-day Saints today, what an improvement there would be among us, if we were to do the will of our Father as it is in heaven! It is possible for us to do the will of our Father. We know what His will is, and we beseech our Father that we may do His will as His will is done in heaven; and when we pray with faith we will be enabled to live up to that prayer and that petition, and this should be the endeavor of every member of this Church. Our thoughts should be brought to that point upon every occasion when we approach the Lord, that his will in us may be done as it is done in heaven.” (Oct. 6, 1895)

Pray for material or temporal needs

Jesus was not telling His disciples to only pray for bread. However bread symbolises our physical needs and God’s care for His children.

Pray for forgiveness from sins

The Lord makes a very clear link between our being forgiven of debts (or sins) and our forgiving others.

Pray to avoid temptation

Joseph Smith taught that a better rendition of this verse is “leave us not in temptation.” (Andrus,They Knew the Prophet, p. 87)

Elder J Devn Cornish said:

Thus, in our prayers we may begin the protective process of putting on the whole armor of God (see Ephesians 6:11; D&C 27:15) by looking forward to the day ahead and asking for help with the sometimes frightening things we may face. Please, my friends, do not forget to ask the Lord to protect and be with you.

Heavenly Father answers prayers.

Elder Boyd K. Packer:

“No message is repeated more times in scripture than the simple thought: ‘Ask, and ye shall receive’ ( D&C 4:7 )” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1979, 30; or Ensign, Nov. 1979, 21 ).

‘Believe in the power and majesty of prayer. The Lord answers our prayers. I know that. I have seen it happen again and again and again. Prayer brings us into partnership with God. It offers us an opportunity to speak with Him, to thank Him for His magnificent blessings, and to ask Him for guidance and protection as we walk the paths of life. This great work, which is spreading over the earth, found its roots in the prayer of a boy. He had read in the family Bible, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed” (James 1:5–6). That is the promise. Is there any greater promise anywhere in the world than that promise?‘ (Teachings of Gordon B Hinckley Lesson Manual, Chapter 6)

Why does prayer have the power to bring us “into partnership with God”?

Neal A Maxwell: Petitioning in prayer has taught me, again and again, that the vault of heaven with all its blessings is to be opened only by a combination lock. One tumbler falls when there is faith; a second when there is personal righteousness; the third and final tumbler falls only when what is sought is, in God’s judgement – not ours – right for us. (New Era, April 1978)

We can identify true and false prophets by their fruits.

The Prophet Joseph Smith

He had unchanging faith and trust in God.

John Lyman Smith who lived for several months with the Prophet when a boy wrote:

‘In my early years I used to often eat at the table with Joseph the Prophet. At one time he called us to dinner. I being at play in the room with his son Joseph, he called us to him, and we stood one on each side of him. After he had looked over the table he said, “Lord, we thank Thee for this Johnny cake, and ask Thee to send us something better. Amen.” The corn bread was cut and I received a piece from his hand.

“Before the bread was all eaten, a man came to the door and asked if the Prophet Joseph was at home. Joseph replied he was, whereupon the visitor said, “I have brought you some flour and a ham.”

Joseph arose and took the gift, and blessed the man in the name of the Lord. Turning to his wife, Emma, he said, “I knew the Lord would answer my prayer.”‘

He was in love with truth and believed that God would help every searcher after truth.

Joseph’s story begins with his petition for truth, which led to the First Vision. The concluding, sober paragraph of that recital is the foundation of his life’s achievements:

‘I had now got my mind satisfied so far as the sectarian world was concerned, that it was not my duty to join with any of them, but to continue as I was until further directed. I had found the testimony of James to be true, that a man who lacked wisdom might ask of God, and obtain, and not be upbraided.’

Mr. John S. Reed, lawyer by profession, was employed by Joseph Smith to help him in some of his early law suits. Mr. Reed on May 17, 1844, said in an address in Nauvoo:

‘… The first acquaintance I had with General Smith was about the year 1823. He came into my neighborhood, being then about eighteen years of age, and resided there two years, during which time I became intimately acquainted with him. I do know that his character was irreproachable, and that he was well-known for truth and uprightness; that he moved in the first circles of the community, and he was often spoken of as a young man of intelligence and good morals, and possessing a mind susceptible of the highest intellectual attainments.

I early discovered that his mind was constantly in search of truth, expressing an anxious desire to know the will of God .’

Lorenzo Snow, who saw the Prophet before joining the Church, says:

‘I shall never forget the first time I saw Joseph Smith. It was in Father Johnson’s house, in the township of Hiram, in the State of Ohio, about twenty-five miles from Kirtland. It was near Father Johnson’s where the mob tarred and feathered him. When I saw him he was standing in the doorway. Before him was a small bowery occupied by about a hundred and fifty or two hundred men and women. There for the first time I heard his voice. When I heard his testimony in regard to what the Lord had revealed to him, it seemed to me that he must be an honest man. He talked and looked like an honest man. He was an honest man.’

He was humble; he took little honour to himself.

Joseph Smith was a humble man. He recognized that he was only an instrument in God’s hands. He took no glory to himself. In a meeting with Saints who had just arrived in Nauvoo he spoke noble words:

‘I told them I was but a man, and they must not expect me to be perfect; if they expected perfection from me, I should expect it from them; but if they would bear with my infirmities and the infirmities of the brethren, I would likewise bear with their infirmities.’

He loved his fellow men.

Sister Margarette McIntire Burgess wrote:

‘Another time my older brother and I were going to school, near to the building which was known as Joseph’s brick store. It had been raining the previous day, causing the ground to be very muddy, especially along that street. My brother Wallace and I both got fast in the mud, and could not get out, and of course childlike, we began to cry, for we thought we would have to stay there. But looking up, I beheld the loving friend of children, the Prophet Joseph, coming to us. He soon had us on higher and drier ground. Then he stooped down and cleaned the mud from our little, heavy laden shoes, took his handkerchief from his pocket and wiped our tear-stained faces. He spoke kind and cheering words to us, and sent us on our way to school rejoicing.’

William Taylor commented:

‘Never in all my life have I seen anything more beautiful than the striking example of brotherly love and devotion felt for each other by Joseph and Hyrum. I witnessed this many, many times. No matter how often, or when or where they met, it was always with the same expression of supreme joy. It could not have been otherwise, when both were filled to overflowing with the gift and power of the Holy Ghost! It was kindred spirits meeting!’

He was obedient. 

From him came also the compelling statement that “there is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated. And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.”

His life was an example of obedience. He was shown the Book of Mormon plates; he knew where they were; yet despite his natural eagerness to possess them, he obediently saw them for four years only once a year, as commanded. Obediently, as the Lord directed, he went from place to place, built temples in the midst of his people’s poverty, subjected himself to trials and toils, and in every manner throughout his life showed obedience to the Lord’s will.

During one particularly busy time he declared a rule of obedience that governed his life:

“No month ever found me more busily engaged than November; but as my life consisted of activity and unyielding exertions, I made this my rule: When the Lord commands, do it.”