Prayer’s Agenda

Prayer’s Agenda

Read: Luke 11:1-4

“Father, hallowed be your name.”

Luke 11:2

“You are not drawn to God primarily for your own benefit but for His.”

—Gonville Ffrench-Beytagh

IN WORD We fly by the words with little recognition of what they mean. We know they are about the glory of God, but they are a formality, a ritual part of a ritual prayer. Once we’ve said them—or the whole prayer, for that matter—we can get on with the real prayer, the whole reason we are coming to God in the first place. We need something. The “hallowed” part acknowledges who He is before we acknowledge what we need. It’s the proper protocol.

But wait. Why did Jesus start with this? Why is it the first line of His model prayer after that beautiful, comforting address to “Father”? And why, after starting with such intimate familiarity, does He go straight to this holy, formal language we have come to expect and ignore? “Father” is a good start to the prayer, but we lose Him soon after. We pray “hallowed be your name” much more often than we mean it.

So what does it mean? Obviously, it’s about high and holy things, like the glory of God and bringing honor to His name. But what is Jesus trying to tell us with this ultraformal lead sentence? Could it be that this is somehow to be an emphasis in our praying?

Yes, Jesus is setting the agenda for us. When we pray, we are to begin with a clear statement that what we seek above all else is God’s honor and His kingdom. We’re not here in this prayer conversation primarily for us, though we will surely benefit; we’re here primarily for Him. We’re setting our agenda by explicitly stating that we desire His. We bend our knees and bow our heads because there is something higher at stake here than our desires du jour. We must confess that our interests—as legitimate as they may be— are consistent with the highest value in the universe: God’s glory.

IN DEED Is this where your prayers begin? Not with that particular statement, necessarily, but with that attitude? It’s an essential key to unlocking the mystery of prayer. God’s glory is the point of all creation. It should be the point of our prayers as well.