| We are reading again today part of John 17 because there is a very important aspect of prayer in these first few verses. One word appears at least five times in these verses. It is the word 'glorify'. Here is perhaps the hardest lesson of all to learn in the school of prayer. Our prayers must be for the glory of God. That sounds simple or easy, but stop and think about it for a moment. Why do we ask God for certain things? Just because we want them? Or can we honestly say that we are asking for them so that God can be glorified in answering our prayer? Why does a Christian wife want her drunken husband to be saved? So that he will be easier to live with? So that she won't have to go to church on her own any more? It is easy for us who are not in her position to say she should only ask for his salvation so that God might be glorified. What if we were in her position? Would we find it easy to pray for the husband's salvation so that God might be glorified and not because he would be easier to live with? But this is how Christ prayed. What did he ask God for? 'Father, glorify your son.' Why did he want this? Why did he ask for it? Read the rest of the verse. 'So that your son might glorify you.' It would be good for us to look at the requests we send up to God. Are they selfish prayers? Are we asking only for our own good? Or can we honestly say 'Father I am asking for this so that others may see you are a prayer-hearing and a prayer-answering God and I will give all the praise and all the glory to you!' That's today's lesson in the school of prayer for us all. Let's ask God together to help us learn it well. A VERSE FOR TODAY: The Lord is near to all who call upon him … in truth and sincerity. Psalm 145: 18 | 
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