The Model Prayer - Pt 5

 

[Jesus said] Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Matthew 6:9–13 ESV).

 

Today we see the next of Jesus’ instructions in our prayers: “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…” (v. 10). You may remember this was a part of the final recorded prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane just before His arrest and crucifixion (cf. Luke 22). They are difficult words to pray. We may let them roll off our tongues when we recite the Lord’s Prayer but to actually think about and mean what we say as we repeat those words can be next to impossible. When we pray “Thy will be done” we are telling God that we put our whole trust in Him; that we will put aside our wants, desires, hopes, and dreams aside and instead trust that what He brings to us will be exactly what we need at that moment.

 

This is not a “surrender of defeat.” I have often heard people during a difficult time simply say, “Well, that’s just God’s will.” There is a great difference between that and desiring the will of God each moment of our life. This is an active request for God to do what He knows is best in our life.

 

God knows our every need. He knows our every desire. He knows what is best for us. Today I pray that we each will trust in His wisdom and in His love for us and know that when we give Him our whole selves and when we proclaim “Thy will be done!” that He will take care of us in ways we could never imagine. Trusting can be difficult; it can be scary. But God loves us in a way that we can’t even comprehend and He is faithful even when we doubt Him.

 

Thy will be done, Lord.