But, of course, in prayer we are meant to ask for things for ourselves and for others. What has been said above by no means indicates the complete reason for praying. No, the Christian prays for things for himself and others. It cannot be too strongly stated "that prayer gets things done". "Ye have not," says St. James, "because ye ask not". It is the Will of the Father to give us things in response to prayer. Our Lord in the model prayer taught us to pray definitely for certain things in human life. His Father, so He teaches us, is interested in the whole of human life, all its needs, its cares, its joys, its perplexities, its strain,--all these can be made the subject of intercourse between the Father and the child. The Father cares about them so much that they must find their place in our prayers. Indeed, they are so important that they must have _their own place_. And their own place is second. So in all our praying let us remember it is God first, ourselves second. But we go further than that. It would seem as if we were not in a position to know our real needs sufficiently well to pray about them with intelligence, unless first of all we have allowed the light that comes from thinking about God, adoring His Name, and falling down before the majesty of His purpose and His will, to shine upon our life's needs. Yes, we are indeed to pray for our varied needs and those of others, but we cannot know our real needs unless God is first in our prayer, and we have prayed, "Our Father, Hallowed be Thy name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done".[3] HOW SHOULD WE PRAY? It would seem to be perfectly clear from the teaching of the Bible and the Church, and from the experience of those who really pray, that men and women can live lives of power, peace, and usefulness, whatever their lot may be, if they would but pray. There it is before us. It is the challenge of prayer. If you pray, you can do great things for God and man. There the challenge stands. "But", someone says, "I personally have found it very difficult to pray, possibly my gifts lie in other directions." This is often said as if the speaker thought he were unique. He is quite right about one thing,--it is difficult to pray,--but he is wrong in thinking he is unique. Prayer is one of the hardest things to do. This is one of the reasons we shirk it. Do not be surprised if you find it hard. "It is hard," someone has said, "because it is high". Most things that are very well worth doing are things we find hard, especially at first, to learn to do.