Praying That Our Father's Will Be Done

                It was at one of our oldest daughter’s well-baby check-ups that our family doctor commented, “I don’t see how anyone with a young child can not believe in original sin.”   I couldn’t help but chuckle at the truth of his remark.  Although she was only nine months old, our little Leah was already asserting her own will – a will that, very apparently, was bound by sin.

                There is not one among us – male or female, young or old – who desires that our will be subject to the will of another.  And yet, our Lord teaches us to pray to our Father, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

                The writers of the Heidelberg Catechism and believers for centuries have understood this petition in the following way:

               

“Grant that we and all men may renounce our own will, and without murmuring obey Thy will, which is only good; that so everyone may attend to and perform the duties of his station and calling as willingly and faithfully as the angels do in heaven.”

                What is the will of God?

                This question can be answered in two ways.  We can understand God’s will to be His eternal counsel, or decree.   Is. 46: 9-10 reads, “I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.”  No man can thwart the unfolding of our Father’s will.  Nor does any man know exactly how God’s counsel will unfold in the coming year, not to mention the remainder of this day.  The child of God rests in this knowledge, however, “That all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

But there is a sense in which we do know the will of our Father.  In Matt. 7:21 Jesus declares, “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” The inspired apostle Paul wrote, I Thess. 4:3, “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification.”  God’s will is that you and I live holy lives.  Our rule for that life of holiness is found in the Ten Commandments, which Jesus summarized in Matt. 22:  “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind; and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

The end of praying this petition is that you and I might attend to the duties of our station and calling as willingly and faithfully as the angels do in heaven.  Some weeks ago, when we considered the Christian’s calling to work, we defined one’s calling or vocation this way:  “The place one occupies in the present.”  When you pray today that our Father’s will be done, you are asking that His Holy Spirit equip you to run the machine, drive the truck, change the diapers, clean the house, teach the students, finish the homework…willingly, cheerfully, “heartily” – that is, with all your heart – “as to the Lord, and not men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance; for ye serve the Lord Christ (Col. 3:23-24).

This petition exposes our prayers for the self-centered ditties they too often are.  Prayer is not a way of changing God’s mind, nor is it a means of getting from God things that we want.  True prayer changes us, forcing us to acknowledge the bondage of our own will in light of the goodness and unchangeableness of the will of our Father in heaven.