What/Which is Right

Therefore, ye must always pray unto the Father in my name. And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold, it shall be given unto you (3 Nephi 8:8). The whole meaning of this promise is captured in the qualification that it must be that “which is right.” If one acquires an understanding of what “is right,” then by asking for it, one submits to the Father’s will. Even if one would shrink from it, beg that it may pass from him, or cower at the thing required, when one asks the Father in [Christ’s] name for whatsoever is right, despite his desire for things to be otherwise, he is going to become one with Them. Then he will be like Them and learn the great truth that the will of the Father IS indeed “whatsoever is right.” Joseph Smith explained it: “When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and finds that the man is determined to serve Him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and his election made sure; then it will be his privilege to receive the other Comforter, which the Lord hath promised the Saints.”¹ The way Heaven knows a man has arrived at that point is by the offered prayers. When they seek to do the will of the Father, and the requests are “what is right,” then the Heavens cannot withhold anything from that man. Indeed, the Lord will prompt the right questions by what the Lord says to that man, so that the knowledge of that man will reach into the Heavens (see Ether 1:12–14). Therefore, one must not only pray always unto the Father in Christ’s name, but one must also grow in understanding, humility, and meekness so as to ask the Father for that which is right. This is a process. ²