10b your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
- Matthew 6:10b, The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan Publishing House) 1984.
In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:
Words are powerful by themselves, but the way those words are spoken can have a significant impact on what they mean. For example, take this sentence: “You will be in by eleven.” You might expect that sentence to come out of the mouth of the parent of a teenager who is going out for the evening. The statement is simple enough, but it can have a number of different meanings.
“You will be in by eleven?” sounds like a question, with the
parent wanting to know when the teen expects to get home. “You will be in by ELEVEN” means that the curfew time is non-negotiable,
and even
The same basic principle can be applied to prayer. The Lord’s Prayer is a model prayer. Because
it is inspired, because it came down to us from Jesus himself, it cannot be
improved. But the way we pray the
petitions can help us pray them with meaning.
I came to appreciate this personally not long after I came to
On Communion Sundays the altar assistants go up to the sacristy during the offering. There they prepare and come out after the elements have been consecrated. That means the assistants and the pastor who is not presiding are all in that small room during the prayers. One Sunday when I was in the sacristy with the assistants, something caught my attention during the Lord’s Prayer.
I had grown up praying it this way, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done...” One of the assistants prayed this way:“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, YOUR kingdom come, YOUR will be done...” We were saying the same words, but the inflection was different. I have since changed the way I pray those two petitions because it helps me concentrate on what I am actually praying for.
With the emphasis on YOUR, we are reminding ourselves that we want the Lord’s will to be done. Not what I want. Not what my parents want. Not what my children want. Not what anyone else in the whole world wants. In the third petition, Jesus instructs us to put everything into our Father’s hands when we pray...
YOUR WILL BE DONE
I. What it is
II. Who opposes it
III. How it is done
Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we pray: “Your will be done.” That sounds good. That sounds like something that every Christian wants. But what is it? What is God’s will? Actually, the will of God came up already last week in our study of the second petition.
It is God’s will that his kingdom come, to us and to others. In other words, God wants his Word be taught in its truth and purity to all people. Jesus told his disciples: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19,20). Jesus’ command leaves no room for confusion. Go. Make Disciples. Baptize. Teach.
The preaching of the gospel is not an end in itself. It is a means to a greater end. God also wants the Holy Spirit to work through the Word to kindle faith in people’s hearts. It is God’s will for “all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (I Timothy 2:4). Again, God’s will is anything but hidden. He wants every person to believe. He wants every heart to possess saving faith. He wants every precious soul he created to enjoy eternity in heaven.
Finally, God wants his people to live according to his Word. Paul told the Thessalonians: “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified” (I Thessalonians 4:3). To be sanctified means to be holy, to do whatever God commands, to avoid whatever God forbids, and to approach every task whether it is monumental or mundane as an opportunity to thank and praise and serve God.
To put it all together, God wants his Word to be shared, believed and obeyed. It’s that simple. But if it is so simple, then why is it such a struggle? Why are there so many people in the world who have never even heard of Jesus much less what he did? And why are there so many people who don’t believe in Jesus even though he promises to give them eternal life for free? And why are there so many people in the world, even the ones who claim to be his followers, who don’t do what he says? God’s Word is not shared...God’s Word is not believed...God’s Word is not obeyed because his will is opposed by the forces of the unholy three.
Opposition against God begins with the devil because the devil has opposed God since the beginning. He was the angel who led a rebellion against God at creation. He was the one used deceit and cunning to bring down Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. And he makes use of the same tricks to achieve the same deadly results today.
Somewhere along the line you have probably heard a phrase that goes something like this: “Knowing your enemy is the first step in defeating him.” This might help explain why Martin Luther was such a great theologian. Not only did Luther have a strong faith in God and a thorough understanding of God’s Word. He also understood the nature of the devil. He knew what made Satan tick.
Listen to his insight about the old evil foe in words taken from the Large Catechism: “No one is ready to believe how much the devil opposes and obstructs their fulfillment (the 1st and 2nd petitions). He cannot stand having anyone teach or believe the right things. It torments him unspeakably to see his lies and atrocious deceptions...exposed in all their shame to public view as he himself is driven out of human hearts and his kingdom is cracked wide open.”
Luther understood that the devil is a ruthless, heartless, tireless enemy of God. He hates everything God stands for. He wants to destroy everything God builds. And he will do absolutely everything in his power to oppose God’s will in the world.
Satan’s number one ally in this war against God is the world. This enemy is particularly dangerous because it often comes to us in disguise. The world takes slavery to sin and repackages it as the freedom to choose. The world takes wickedness and renames it “sowing one’s wild oats.” What is true about the devil is equally true of the world. The world isn’t neutral. The world hates God and everyone who follows him.
Last but certainly not least, the third part of the unholy three is the sinful flesh. Unlike the devil and the world, the sinful nature works from the inside. But one thing they all have in common is their attitude towards God. “The sinful mind is hostile to God” (Romans 8:7). The sinful mind is an enemy God. And our sinful nature is always with us, every minute of every hour of every day.
There is a story about an old Scottish woman who went to country homes selling buttons and thread. Whenever she came to an unmarked crossroad, she would toss a stick in the air and go whichever way the stick pointed. One day a passerby saw her tossing the stick into the air several times. “Why do you toss the stick in the air so many times?” he asked. She answered, “It has pointed every time to the road going to the right, and I want to go on the road to the left!” And so she kept on throwing up the stick until it finally pointed the way she wanted to go.
Our sinful nature tells us: “You should be able to do what you want as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else. God wants you to be happy, doesn’t he? You should be able to do what you want. After all, God helps those who help themselves, right?” And if we throw our stick in the air enough times, what comes out of our mouths as “Your will be done” in prayer becomes “my will be done” in practice.
Because we are sinful human beings, we are no match for the unholy three. Because we can sing “The will of God is always best,” one minute and complain about everything that is wrong in our lives the next, we are in no position to decide what is right and fair. Because we are so quick to forsake God’s will for our passing whims, we deserve to be thrown into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons.
But you know what? In
spite of everything we have done, in spite of how many times our pious prayers
contradict our wicked works, no matter how hard the devil, the world and our
flesh work against God, his will was, is and always will be done. That was never more apparent or important than
it was outside the walls of
On the night before Jesus was crucified, he went to his Father in prayer. He knew what was about to happen. He could anticipate the pain: the whips, the chains, the nails the thorns. And so he prayed. Jesus asked God if there was some other way to save the world from sin. But then he added this very important phrase: “Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39).
If the story had ended there, it would still make a good story. The Lord who taught the disciples to pray “Your will be done” put his own words into practice. Even as he was staring death in the face, Jesus was a perfect role model of prayer.
But the story didn’t end there. And Jesus’ prayer was more than just
words. During the final hours of his life,
Jesus obeyed his Father’s will. He
endured the injustice. He endured the
punishment. He endured the pain. And then he paid the ultimate price. Jesus gave up his life for us on
Only Jesus could submit to his Father willingly. Only Jesus could submit to his Father completely. Only Jesus has the power to defeat the devil, the world and our sinful flesh. Only through Jesus can we believe that God’s way is the right way. Only through Jesus can we put everything, our bodies, our lives, our souls, in God’s hands and say: “Your will be done.”
How is God’s will done? “God’s will is done when he breaks and defeats every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh, which try to prevent us from keeping God’s name holy and letting his kingdom come. And God’s will is done when he strengthens and keeps us firm in his Word and in the faith as long as we live. This is his good and gracious will” (from Luther’s explanation in the Small Catechism).
Doing God’s will really has little to do with our doing. In the final analysis (and in Luther’s explanation), God’s will is done by God. He is the one who has defeated the unholy three. He is the one keeps us firm in the faith. But there is a connection between what God’s will is and how it is done.
God wants us to believe his Word, obey his Word and share his Word. God’s will is done when he creates and strengthens faith in our hearts through the Word. The common denominator is...God’s Word. Daily contact with the Word of God will make our faith stronger. Regular contact with the Word will shape our wills to God’s will. Personal contact with the Word will motivate us to share the Word with others.
May that Word work in our hearts so that we come before our Father in humble submission and pray: “Lord, your will be done.” Amen.