“This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today 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 the evil one.'” Matthew 6:9-13 NIV
As Jesus continues this prayer model, He is showing us that not only are we to acknowledge God’s holiness and worthiness of praise, but we are to submit to God’s perfect will. We go about life usually with a plan in mind and hoping that what we want is what is going to happen. Sometimes our plan or will for our lives matches God’s plan or will for our lives and sometimes it does not.
The level of submission that Jesus is demonstrating here is a level that a lot of Christians struggle to attain. Jesus is saying that no matter what it is that the person wants, God’s will should take precedence and be the plan or will that occurs. It occurs in heaven that way and the idea is for it to occur on earth that way as well.
This section of the prayer can be viewed as a wanting of God’s will for everyone in general and at the same time it can be viewed as asking for God’s will to be done on a personal level, for the person praying the prayer. Either way, praying this type of prayer can be scary for us because we like to have some sense of control over what is happening in our future, which this removes.
When you have prayed this part of the prayer before, have you really meant that God’s will be done? I know there are times when I have prayed it and not really meant it and then there have been times when I sincerely meant for whatever God’s will was to be done. Unfortunately, most of the time when that happens, I have been in a situation where I do not know how to move forward. My goal as God’s child is to say “Your will be done” and mean it all the time.
Lord, help us as we grow in our communication with You. We don’t always see the bigger picture and we want our will to be the one that occurs. Continue to guide us in submission to Your will. In Jesus’s name, Amen.