Whose Will Be Done?





I think we might have been praying it wrong.

When you pray, where do you pray for God's will to be done?  At the end, right?

"Dear God, please give me what I think I need (insert specific requests here).  Oh yeah, and not my will, but Thy will be done.  Amen."

Is that basically how you pray?  That is, I must confess, all too often what comes out of my heart as I bring my prayers before God.

When Jesus instructs His disciples to "pray like this" He says, "Hallowed be Thy name.  Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done."  And those are the FIRST things that He teaches us to pray for, not the last.

The hallowing of God's name, the coming of His kingdom, the implantation of His divine will; this makes up the first half of the prayer, and we haven't mentioned a single thing about what we think we might need or want.  God's will comes first, then I can pray for my needs of daily bread and forgiveness of trespasses.

And that is ok.  You know why?  Because God's will is for my good.  God's will is that all men would be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.  God's will is that I would have life and not death.  God's will is that Jesus would die for me, rise for me, reign over the universe for me.  If God gets what He wants then it is certainly going to work out in my favor.

The Lord's Prayer is more than just memory work.  It is the model for a life of prayer and piety lived in the Gospel.  You don't have to tack God's will on to the end of your prayers.  We can confidently pray for God's will to be done right up front because He has told us and shown us that His will is our salvation.

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