Your Will Be Done On Earth As It Is In Heaven
Adult study
Abba
Another Look At The Lord's Prayer
What are we praying in this petition? What does "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" mean? Luther answered that question like this: "The good and gracious will of God is done indeed without our prayer; but we pray in this petition that it may be done among us also."
What Is And What Isn't God's Will?
There is more confusion about the will of God than about any other topic. Let's look first at what is not the will of God. For example, when there is a hurricane, a tornado, or a flood, what does the insurance company call it? They call it "an act of God." How confusing! How distorted! How twisted our minds have become in this fallen state that we should attribute disasters to God. At funerals, people often say, "It was the will of God that he (she) died." Irreparable damage can be caused by attributing suffering and death to God's will.
John Randolf puts it this way:
The will of God is on the side of light and healing and goodness. God is on our side; not against us.
I think we are going to have to find other explanations for many of the things we have too easily identified as the will of God. There are times when we simply have to say, "Call it evil, call it human irresponsibility, call it natural phenomenon we don't yet understand, but don't call it the will of God."2
Before we call something the will of God, we should check to make sure that it is consistent with what Jesus taught us about God.
Dr. Leslie Weatherhead has written a helpful book called The Will of God in which he attacks the many illusions we have about God's will. Among other helpful things he says, "Surely we cannot identify as the will of God something for which a man would be locked up in jail, or put in a criminal lunatic asylum."
In Matthew 18:14 we read: "It is not the will of my Father who is in heaven, that any of these little ones should perish." Jesus did not inflict disease on anyone. On the contrary, he healed countless numbers of sick people. God is on the side of healing, not hurting; life, not death. The will of God is for health and wholeness.
Like a father who wills only good for his recalcitrant son or daughter, nevertheless God respects the son's or daughter's freedom to turn away from him, as well as to make good decisions. God does not force good on his children. God does not take away freedom, even when we misuse or abuse that freedom. The abuse of freedom causes much of the trouble we have in life. Some tragedies remain unexplained, but many come from the misuse of freedom by God's children.
Fivefold Test
There are still many mysteries about God's will for which we will get answers when we see him face-to-face, but as you pray this petition about God's will, you might want to consider this five-fold test for determining what the will of God is for you personally:
1. Jesus revealed God in the Scriptures. Is what you are seeking contrary to or in agreement with God's Word?
2. Jesus revealed God to be loving. Is what you seek in prayer reflective of a loving God?
3. Jesus revealed God to be holy. Is the object of your prayer reflective of a holy God?
4. Jesus revealed God to be just. Is your petition before God reflective of a God who is just?
5. Jesus revealed a God who suffers with his people. Are you praying in harmony with God who suffers with his people?
As you come away from prayer and consider your actions, ask yourself, "Am I really seeking to do the will of God? If so, how shall I do it?" The answer is that we are called to do the will of God joyfully and willingly, like the angels in heaven do it. "Your will be done on earth as it is done in heaven," we pray.
Do the angels do the will of God sadly? Of course not. Neither should we! Do the angels grumble at the will of God? No. Neither should we! Aren't the angels gleeful and joyful in doing the will of God? Yes. So we, too, should pray to do the will of God as in heaven!
To pray, "Your will be done," means to seek to do as much as we know of the will of God joyfully and willingly! We pray in this petition that our will be adapted to God's will, not reluctantly through clenched teeth, but out of the knowledge that God wants only good for us.
To pray, "Your will be done," means to recognize that God the Father is for us, not against us. Thus we unravel the tangled knot of resistance to God's will in our minds. Resistance to God is not only the problem of Adam and Eve. It is our problem as well.
To pray this prayer means that we recognize the need to overcome the human tendency to center our lives in ourselves. Not until this balance is redressed -- not until the world is no longer seen as revolving around each individual ego, which is the sun, and everybody else just satellites -- will any political or social or economic system work for the full benefit of mankind, instead of for a powerful few. The purpose of the Christian religion is to make us God-centered rather than man-centered; thus we see the importance attached to these words, "Your will be done."
Reinhold Niebuhr once observed: "If the self-centered is shattered by a genuine awareness of its situation, there is the power of a new life in the experience." That awareness is implicit in these words, "Your will be done." That awareness leads to witness to others about the kingdom of God.
To pray this petition means we open ourselves to be instruments of God to usher his kingdom into the hearts of others.
We dare not just rattle these words off like the grocery list. "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" is the center of our faith and the heart of our problem. Self-centeredness, or the illusion of our individuality, is our biggest problem. Bluntly stated, we have a natural propensity towards asking God, or sometimes telling God, to do our will instead of trying to tune into his will. The object of prayer is not that God's will might be changed, but that God's will might be known and done by us.
The AA Prayer May Be Helpful
The prayer of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) may be helpful in this respect:
Lord, give me the courage to change the things I can change, the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Instead of accepting those things we cannot change, we often fight these things. It's like beating our heads against a brick wall to try to change those things which cannot be changed.
Instead of accepting those things we cannot change, we sometimes resent them. We try to grin and bear some trouble or disappointment, but inside we are angry. Resentment is internalized anger. Resentment is a major flaw in most of our lives. It kills our physical and spiritual health.
Instead of accepting those things we cannot change, sometimes we try to resign ourselves to them. Acceptance and resignation are two different things. Acceptance is positive and healthy. Resignation is negative and non-productive. We often hear phrases like "He is resigned to his lot," the meaning of which is that a person has forced himself by an act of the will to accept a most difficult fact of life. Sometimes "Your will be done" is prayed in that mood. "Well, Lord, if you won't heal my mother or change my husband or make my son be more attentive, then your will be done." These words said through clenched teeth are counter-productive. That kind of a doom and gloom attitude is not at all what our Lord had in mind in teaching us this prayer petition.
This petition means acceptance, not resignation! Acceptance happens as we fall to our knees and open ourselves to God, turning from self to God as the center of our lives. To center one's life in God means accepting those things one cannot change. It also means willing obedience.
Jesus once said, "My food is to do the will of my father." He was driven to fulfill the spiritual hunger of man through the will of the Father like a natural man is driven to fulfill physical hunger by seeking food. In other words, the will of God was not just something Jesus accepted because it couldn't be changed, but something he anticipated and expected and desired and struggled to know. It was his food -- his life supply.
To do the will of the Father on earth as it is in heaven means to embrace the ways of God. That's how the angels do it -- joyfully and willingly embracing God's will.
Yes, but even when we seek to do the will of God joyfully and willingly, sometimes things go wrong and bad things happen to us. This petition, "Your will be done," raises a serious question: Where is God when bad things happen to us?
The answer to that question is that God always identifies with the sufferer. Jesus is the Suffering Servant. When you suffer, he suffers with you. He willfully identifies with all your suffering. When you realize this astounding truth, you can pray joyfully and willingly, "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
Dr. Helmut Thielicke, in his book on the Lord's Prayer, offers this comforting thought: "Everything that happens to you whether good or bad, must pass muster before your Father's heart."3
We sing about the God who cares in one of our famous hymns, "Jesus Calls Us O'er The Tumult." Jesus doesn't cause the tumult. He is in the tumult with us. He suffers through it with us. He stands with us. And he calls us over the noisy clatter of our own willfulness or the noisy roar of the disaster: "Follow me, I will get you through the tumult."
The Lord's Prayer is centered in the glory of our Abba. True prayer always is. Prayer is basically a matter of opening oneself to God and not trying to manipulate God or trying to get God to do our bidding. Opening the door to Jesus, who stands knocking, gives glory to God and hallows his name. One of the highest expressions of being centered in God and not in ourselves is mysteriously hidden in this prayer petition: "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven...."
Questions And Ideas
For Your Consideration And Discussion
1. Do you agree or disagree with the fivefold test of the will of God?
2. Do you agree with the statement, "God works through all things that happen to us, but does not cause all things that happen to us"?
What Is And What Isn't God's Will?
There is more confusion about the will of God than about any other topic. Let's look first at what is not the will of God. For example, when there is a hurricane, a tornado, or a flood, what does the insurance company call it? They call it "an act of God." How confusing! How distorted! How twisted our minds have become in this fallen state that we should attribute disasters to God. At funerals, people often say, "It was the will of God that he (she) died." Irreparable damage can be caused by attributing suffering and death to God's will.
John Randolf puts it this way:
The will of God is on the side of light and healing and goodness. God is on our side; not against us.
I think we are going to have to find other explanations for many of the things we have too easily identified as the will of God. There are times when we simply have to say, "Call it evil, call it human irresponsibility, call it natural phenomenon we don't yet understand, but don't call it the will of God."2
Before we call something the will of God, we should check to make sure that it is consistent with what Jesus taught us about God.
Dr. Leslie Weatherhead has written a helpful book called The Will of God in which he attacks the many illusions we have about God's will. Among other helpful things he says, "Surely we cannot identify as the will of God something for which a man would be locked up in jail, or put in a criminal lunatic asylum."
In Matthew 18:14 we read: "It is not the will of my Father who is in heaven, that any of these little ones should perish." Jesus did not inflict disease on anyone. On the contrary, he healed countless numbers of sick people. God is on the side of healing, not hurting; life, not death. The will of God is for health and wholeness.
Like a father who wills only good for his recalcitrant son or daughter, nevertheless God respects the son's or daughter's freedom to turn away from him, as well as to make good decisions. God does not force good on his children. God does not take away freedom, even when we misuse or abuse that freedom. The abuse of freedom causes much of the trouble we have in life. Some tragedies remain unexplained, but many come from the misuse of freedom by God's children.
Fivefold Test
There are still many mysteries about God's will for which we will get answers when we see him face-to-face, but as you pray this petition about God's will, you might want to consider this five-fold test for determining what the will of God is for you personally:
1. Jesus revealed God in the Scriptures. Is what you are seeking contrary to or in agreement with God's Word?
2. Jesus revealed God to be loving. Is what you seek in prayer reflective of a loving God?
3. Jesus revealed God to be holy. Is the object of your prayer reflective of a holy God?
4. Jesus revealed God to be just. Is your petition before God reflective of a God who is just?
5. Jesus revealed a God who suffers with his people. Are you praying in harmony with God who suffers with his people?
As you come away from prayer and consider your actions, ask yourself, "Am I really seeking to do the will of God? If so, how shall I do it?" The answer is that we are called to do the will of God joyfully and willingly, like the angels in heaven do it. "Your will be done on earth as it is done in heaven," we pray.
Do the angels do the will of God sadly? Of course not. Neither should we! Do the angels grumble at the will of God? No. Neither should we! Aren't the angels gleeful and joyful in doing the will of God? Yes. So we, too, should pray to do the will of God as in heaven!
To pray, "Your will be done," means to seek to do as much as we know of the will of God joyfully and willingly! We pray in this petition that our will be adapted to God's will, not reluctantly through clenched teeth, but out of the knowledge that God wants only good for us.
To pray, "Your will be done," means to recognize that God the Father is for us, not against us. Thus we unravel the tangled knot of resistance to God's will in our minds. Resistance to God is not only the problem of Adam and Eve. It is our problem as well.
To pray this prayer means that we recognize the need to overcome the human tendency to center our lives in ourselves. Not until this balance is redressed -- not until the world is no longer seen as revolving around each individual ego, which is the sun, and everybody else just satellites -- will any political or social or economic system work for the full benefit of mankind, instead of for a powerful few. The purpose of the Christian religion is to make us God-centered rather than man-centered; thus we see the importance attached to these words, "Your will be done."
Reinhold Niebuhr once observed: "If the self-centered is shattered by a genuine awareness of its situation, there is the power of a new life in the experience." That awareness is implicit in these words, "Your will be done." That awareness leads to witness to others about the kingdom of God.
To pray this petition means we open ourselves to be instruments of God to usher his kingdom into the hearts of others.
We dare not just rattle these words off like the grocery list. "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" is the center of our faith and the heart of our problem. Self-centeredness, or the illusion of our individuality, is our biggest problem. Bluntly stated, we have a natural propensity towards asking God, or sometimes telling God, to do our will instead of trying to tune into his will. The object of prayer is not that God's will might be changed, but that God's will might be known and done by us.
The AA Prayer May Be Helpful
The prayer of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) may be helpful in this respect:
Lord, give me the courage to change the things I can change, the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Instead of accepting those things we cannot change, we often fight these things. It's like beating our heads against a brick wall to try to change those things which cannot be changed.
Instead of accepting those things we cannot change, we sometimes resent them. We try to grin and bear some trouble or disappointment, but inside we are angry. Resentment is internalized anger. Resentment is a major flaw in most of our lives. It kills our physical and spiritual health.
Instead of accepting those things we cannot change, sometimes we try to resign ourselves to them. Acceptance and resignation are two different things. Acceptance is positive and healthy. Resignation is negative and non-productive. We often hear phrases like "He is resigned to his lot," the meaning of which is that a person has forced himself by an act of the will to accept a most difficult fact of life. Sometimes "Your will be done" is prayed in that mood. "Well, Lord, if you won't heal my mother or change my husband or make my son be more attentive, then your will be done." These words said through clenched teeth are counter-productive. That kind of a doom and gloom attitude is not at all what our Lord had in mind in teaching us this prayer petition.
This petition means acceptance, not resignation! Acceptance happens as we fall to our knees and open ourselves to God, turning from self to God as the center of our lives. To center one's life in God means accepting those things one cannot change. It also means willing obedience.
Jesus once said, "My food is to do the will of my father." He was driven to fulfill the spiritual hunger of man through the will of the Father like a natural man is driven to fulfill physical hunger by seeking food. In other words, the will of God was not just something Jesus accepted because it couldn't be changed, but something he anticipated and expected and desired and struggled to know. It was his food -- his life supply.
To do the will of the Father on earth as it is in heaven means to embrace the ways of God. That's how the angels do it -- joyfully and willingly embracing God's will.
Yes, but even when we seek to do the will of God joyfully and willingly, sometimes things go wrong and bad things happen to us. This petition, "Your will be done," raises a serious question: Where is God when bad things happen to us?
The answer to that question is that God always identifies with the sufferer. Jesus is the Suffering Servant. When you suffer, he suffers with you. He willfully identifies with all your suffering. When you realize this astounding truth, you can pray joyfully and willingly, "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
Dr. Helmut Thielicke, in his book on the Lord's Prayer, offers this comforting thought: "Everything that happens to you whether good or bad, must pass muster before your Father's heart."3
We sing about the God who cares in one of our famous hymns, "Jesus Calls Us O'er The Tumult." Jesus doesn't cause the tumult. He is in the tumult with us. He suffers through it with us. He stands with us. And he calls us over the noisy clatter of our own willfulness or the noisy roar of the disaster: "Follow me, I will get you through the tumult."
The Lord's Prayer is centered in the glory of our Abba. True prayer always is. Prayer is basically a matter of opening oneself to God and not trying to manipulate God or trying to get God to do our bidding. Opening the door to Jesus, who stands knocking, gives glory to God and hallows his name. One of the highest expressions of being centered in God and not in ourselves is mysteriously hidden in this prayer petition: "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven...."
Questions And Ideas
For Your Consideration And Discussion
1. Do you agree or disagree with the fivefold test of the will of God?
2. Do you agree with the statement, "God works through all things that happen to us, but does not cause all things that happen to us"?
