Our journey through the Lord’s Prayer continues with the phrase, “Your will be done” in Matthew 6:10. This phrase taken by itself may raise the questions of, “Whose will?” “What is that will?” and “Why should we want it to be done?”
As I wrote about last week, the “your” written here is our Father in heaven - God. So the easy answer to the first question is that we want God’s will to be done.
The next question we may ask is what is God’s will. That is not an easy question to answer in just a few words, as God’s will for each of our lives is different than anyone else’s; God’s will for my life is not the same as God’s will for your life. But, we can look to the Scriptures to see what God’s will is in an overall sense.
Jesus tells the crowds in John 6:38-40, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” Jesus clearly states that His mission is to do the will of “him who sent me,” that is God the Father. Because we as Jesus’ followers are called to imitate Him and become more like Him, then our will, too, should be to do the will of the Father.
Jesus elaborates on that will a bit more by saying that His purpose is not to lose anyone that the Father has given to Him, but to give them eternal life raise them up on the last day. This shows us that Jesus’ whole purpose in life is to do exactly what the Father wants Him to do. This should be our purpose in life as well - to do the will of the Father. Our desire should be to guide people to Jesus so that they can receive the gift of eternal life from Him.
How do we know what God’s will is? Romans 12:2 tells us, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.” We need to allow ourselves to be transformed in Jesus so that our mind will function more like the mind of Christ, and we will be able to discern what God’s will is for us. We know that God’s will is good, pleasing and perfect, because God Himself is good, pleasing, and perfect; nothing evil can exist in Him at all. So if we suspect something may be God’s will, we should test it against that criteria.
But perhaps you’re wondering how we’ll be able to accomplish whatever God’s will is for us. Hebrews 13:20-21 says, “Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” It is through the power of God that we will be equipped with whatever we need for accomplishing whatever God wants for us to do.
Maybe you need something more specific that tells you what to do in order to do God’s will. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Of course, all of that is easier said than done; it is no easy task for us to rejoice always, pray continually, or give thanks in all circumstances. But that is what we are called to do.
This is exactly why we need to pray for God’s will to be done - we know we are not capable of figuring out or fulfilling that will in our own power. We need the power of God working in and through us in order to figure out what God’s will is, and then to actually do it. For more on praying along with God’s will, check out this post. Praying for God’s will to be done encompasses both asking for God’s power to help us be obedient to whatever He is calling us to, but it also encompasses God’s overall plan for the world.
We as human beings will never fully understand the mind of God or how He is working all things together for His good purposes. God’s will is not just individual for each of ours lives but it is also much grander - for all of humanity, in all times and in all places, from those who have already lived to those who are yet to live. God created this world and had a plan for it from the beginning; while His will was that we as humans would always live in perfect harmony with Him, that was broken by mankind’s desire for sin. But God had a plan in mind, and that was for Jesus to come to this earth as a human (yet also fully God), live a perfect life, then die and be raised again so that our relationship with God may be restored.
While Jesus has already come and completed the work He needed to do in order to provide salvation for all of humanity, we are still waiting on the full restoration of all creation back to the perfection in which God created it. When we pray “Your will be done,” we are not only praying for God’s will to be done in our own individual lives but also for Jesus to come again so we can experience that eternal perfection.
What are you praying for regarding God’s will? We often get so wrapped up in our own individual lives that we may forget to consult what God’s will is for us, or we miss the big picture of God’s master plan for all of humanity. Join me in praying that God’s good, perfect, and pleasing will may be made known and accomplished for each of us, individually and as God’s creation.
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