Last Saturday, in The Perfect Prayer, Part 3, we saw that after acknowledging that our God is the perfect, all loving, all powerful, all knowing Daddy, after we realize that despite being our Daddy, God is holy and we need to ensure that we honour the holiness of His name, we are reminded of just how we can honour that holiness: By ensuring that the principles of God’s Kingdom be reflected in our lives!
When we looked at the verse last week, however (“Your kingdom come…On earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10a,c NASB), we see that there is another important point in the centre of this verse that we haven’t yet addressed: “Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10b,c NASB)!
This one is easy, right? We all want God’s will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven! Easy line, easy prayer, thanks Jesus for putting something in the perfect prayer that doesn’t need to be meditated upon…
And so it was that I went through this prayer day upon day for weeks on end, just glossing over this one line, lumping it into the former line, not allowing my mind to contemplate that there might be some meaning beyond the verse’s face value…
Until one day … One day God stopped me as I was praying this line, and He made me understand that by glossing over this line, I was missing some very important truths…
Let’s break this down a bit. The first part of the verse is, “Your will be done…” Just what is the will of God that needs to be done?
Let’s jump back to the Bible for a few ideas about just what His will is…
a) “[God] wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4 NASB)
When we pray, “Your will be done”, we are praying that all people will be saved and know truth!
b) “in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thess. 5:18 NASB).
“Your will be done” then means that we should all give thanks in all circumstances! I don’t know about you, but I fall kind of short on this one!
c) “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality…” (1 Thess. 4:3 NASB).
Well this is one of the commandments, shouldn’t be any surprises there; nonetheless, when you pray, “Your will be done”, you are praying that you will remain pure … And in general, that you will keep God’s commandments!
d) “For such is the will of God, that by doing right you silence the ignorance of foolish people.” (1 Peter 2:15 NASB).
When I read this, the victory shout rises in me: Finally I’m being allowed to tell foolish people to shut up! Well, maybe not. This isn’t exactly in keeping with “love your enemies” (Matt. 5:43 NASB), is it? Rather this is a call to “silence the ignorance” of fools. There’s only one way to silence ignorance, and that’s to do something about educating the ignorant! God’s will is that we help people – through our example! – to become more knowledgeable about Kingdom principles and about God Himself!
e) And here’s a familiar one: “He has told you, mortal one, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8 NASB)
God’s will on Earth is that we do what is good and just, that we love kindness and we humble ourselves before Him!
I could go on. There are many more examples in the Bible. And based on my own personal experience in praying this line of the perfect prayer, if you open your heart to God and ask Him what part of His will He wants to reveal to you today, He will tell you whatever is pertinent to you at any one particular time! Our job then is to pray about whatever He reveals, that God’s will on this — be it us humbling ourselves before Him, or keeping His commandments, or helping our neighbour rake his leaves — will be done in our lives, just as it is in Heaven!
But there is more! Jesus died on the cross to bring us healing: “and He Himself brought our sins in His body up on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness; by His wounds you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24 NASB).
Jesus wouldn’t have given up His life so that we could be healed if it weren’t the will of God for us to be healed. In addition, we know there is no sickness in Heaven (See Revelation 21:1-4)! When we pray, “Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”, we are making a statement of faith that God will heal us on Earth in the same way that there is no sickness in Heaven!
And to think I glossed over this as something simple…
As you go through this upcoming week, continue to pray the perfect prayer every day. This week, however, meditate on the line, “Your will be done”. Ask God to reveal to you what His perfect will is for you on that day, and then pray that it be done on Earth just as it is in Heaven!
Join us next Saturday for “Give Us This Day … The Perfect Prayer, Part 5”.
In His love,
Lyn
Lynona Gordon Chaffart
Author, Moderator, Acting Director, Answers2Prayer Ministries
(To access the entire published portion of “The Perfect Prayer” mini-series, please click here!)
