It  seems a bit strange the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. We usually think of these men as spiritually mature or more attuned to such religious things as prayer. Why else would Jesus have chosen them to be his disciples? But apparently they were normal everyday types of people, like you and me who sometimes struggle to know how to pray.

Perhaps one of the hardest things about prayer is learning how to pray according to God’s will and not our own. For instance, we can approach prayer as a “gimme machine” and expect God to grant all of our requests and wants, whether they align to his purposes or not. But is that how Jesus wanted his disciples to pray?

As we look deeper and hear his instructions to pray: “Father, hallowed be your name,” we begin to understand that the starting point of all prayer is the holiness of God. Whatever comes after that – our needs, wants and desires must always be first seen through the holiness of God.  To start our prayer from any other place will set the focus on us, rather than God.

The questions then are this: “What will bring about the holiness of God in our world?”, “How will our prayers bring about his purposes and will for his people and his creation?” and “How do we align our requests with what he wants to do in our lives and those around us?”