Your Will Be Done on Earth
[Read Matthew 6:9-13]
Before we dive into this week’s message, I think it’s important to recognize that last week’s and this week’s messages are similar in many ways. To pray that the Kingdom would come on earth is a very similar prayer to praying that God’s will would be done on earth. To pray that God would bring our hearts, lives, families, churches, and communities into submission to Him is almost the same thing as praying that God’s will would be done in those same areas. However, it’s still different. Praying, “Your will be done…” often feels more personal than praying “Your kingdom come…”
I’m sure many of you can think of times when you’ve had to pray, “Your will be done…” One story, in particular, comes to mind for me. Rachel and I were pregnant with our fourth child when we had a miscarriage. It’s such a difficult experience because it typically happens about the same time that you’ve gotten over the shock of having another child and are getting excited, then you lose the child. It was really hard. I remember walking around in a fog for a while. I remember finding projects to work on in the garage to distract myself. I ended up making a tiny coffin for our child in preparation for the small funeral we held. We buried the child on Rachel’s grandfather’s grave site and ended the service by praying the Lord’s Prayer together. I remember the drive home and praying to God, “This doesn’t make any sense to me. I have no idea how you can use this for your glory. Yet, I trust you. I trust that you have a plan that is much bigger than anything I can imagine…Your will be done.” And in that moment, an overwhelming sense of peace and comfort flooded over me.
That’s what I mean when I say that praying, “Your will be done…” is a little more personal. Of course, when I said, “Your will be done…” in that prayer, I was submitting myself to my King, and the kingdom was coming in my heart and life, but it’s different isn’t it?
In order for us to truly and honestly be able to pray this prayer, we first need to recognize one important line from the Heidelberg Catechism: “Your will alone is good.” That’s basically a direct quote from Romans 12 which says, “…the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2, ESV). Before we can truly and honestly submit to God’s will—before we can honestly say, “Your will be done…”—we have to believe deep down in our hearts that his will is good. We have to believe, not only that his will is good, but that his will ALONE is good and that his will is the best of all possible goods. Nothing can be better than God’s will. We have to believe what JC Ryle says, "Our truest happiness is perfect submission to God's will, and it is the highest charity to pray that all mankind may know it, obey it, and submit to it." (Ryle, 50). Not only is God’s will good, but it’s in God’s good will that we find our truest happiness and peace and joy. When we believe that deep down in our hearts, we can begin to honestly pray/say, “Your will be done…”
Now, there’s one technical aspect of God’s will that I think is important for us to understand. I don’t want to spend too much time on it this morning, but I feel the need to address it (feel free to reach out to me to ask more questions if you have them—I love answering questions). The Bible uses the term “will of God” in two different ways. It uses the term “will of God” to talk about God’s sovereign and secret will/plan for all creation. So, in some ways, when we’re praying, “Your will be done…” we’re submitting ourselves to God’s sovereign plans and purposes in the world and in our lives.
However, the Bible also uses the term “will of God” in a different way. Some have called this the Decreed Will of God or the Revealed Will of God. This is what God has told us in his word about how we are to live and act in the world. This is also God’s Will for our lives. That’s why we can read passages that say things like, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification…” (1 Thessalonians 4:3, ESV) and “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18, ESV). So, in other ways, when we’re praying, “Your will be done…” we’re praying that God would help us live the life he’s called us to live in the world. That we would understand that his will is good and pleasing and perfect, and then strive to live in accordance with his will in this world, and then submit to his will when things are difficult in our lives.
So, if the first step of truly praying this prayer is comprehending the beauty and goodness of God’s will for our lives and the world, what do you think the next step is? The Heidelberg Catechism helps us here as well when it says, “Help us to reject our own wills.” That’s one of the reasons why this part of the prayer feels more personal. We have to admit and accept that our will is not as good and beautiful and glorious as God’s Will. We have to admit that even though we think we are one of the smartest people on the planet—and we all think that to some degree—that the God who knows all things, created all things, and upholds all things knows better than us. Ultimately, we have to admit we’re wrong and we have to reject our own will and say, “Your will be done in my life, in my family, in this church, at my workplace, in this community…”
This will happen in different ways as we interact with God’s Will in different ways. Let’s look at a few examples of how we need to pray “Your will be done…” when we are thinking about God’s Decreed Will in our lives. When someone has been treating you poorly for a long time and has been wearing you thin for a long time, then they say something nasty and mean to you, what does your will want to do in that moment? You want to get revenge in some way, don’t you? Often, your will wants to say or do something so that that person will feel just as bad as you feel in that moment. Yet, God has revealed that his will is that we not take revenge because vengeance is his. So, what are you supposed to do in that moment? You pray, “Your will be done in this situation, Father. I will trust you in this.” You reject your own will, you embrace God’s will, and you don’t take revenge.
What if you’ve already made a mistake and done something really bad? You’ve been working hard to cover it up so that nobody will find out. You think you’ve done a good job until someone asks you about it. Did you do this thing? What does your will want to do in that moment? Often, your will wants you to lie, wants you to deny it or transfer it or do anything you can do to make yourself look “not guilty.” Yet, God has clearly revealed that his will is that we should not lie. So, what do you do? You pray, “Your will be done in this situation, Father. I will trust you in this and submit my will to Your will.” You reject your own will, you embrace God’s will, and you tell the truth.
This looks a little different when it comes to praying this in regard to God’s Sovereign Will, but ultimately it’s the same thing. Each of us will repeatedly encounter instances and situations where we have to reject our own will and submit our will to God’s Sovereign Will. I’ve had to do that over and over again throughout my life—as I’m sure many of you have too. It was my will to continue to run and grow a successful dock business—I had to reject my own will in that situation and say, “Your will be done…” when God called me into the ministry. I’m sure many of you have had big dreams and plans for the future that you desired would come true but God led you on a different path and you had to reject your will, embrace God’s Will, and say, “Your will be done…” Some of you desired to have a different house, different car, different job, and a different lifestyle but you’ve had to reject your own will, embrace God’s will, and say, “Your will be done…”
We not only have to learn to do this with our dreams, but we also have to learn to do this with our anxieties. It certainly was not my will to be in a coma for two weeks, lose my ability to walk and speak, and miss three months of ministry in this congregation. I had to reject my own will, embrace God’s Will in that situation—and believe that God’s Will is good and beautiful and perfect—and say, “Your will be done…” Many of you have had to encounter very significant health situations or difficult life situations where you’ve had to reject your will, embrace God’s will, and say, “Your will be done in this situation…” If you haven’t yet, you will, so it’s good to start learning how to do it right now in the small things before the big things happen.
This is what we have to do with all of the anxieties we’re holding on to. We’re only holding onto these anxieties because we haven’t fully said, “Your will be done…” We are still saying, “No, my will be done. My will be done. Please, God, do my will. Please. Please. Please do a little bit of my will…” That anxiety hangs over us and can almost crush us at times and we keep holding onto it because we are still refusing to reject our own will. We’re still refusing to say, “Your will be done…” and submit our will to God’s good, perfect, and beautiful will. And the moment you do that—the moment to fully submit your will to God’s will—that anxiety slips away from you and you begin to feel and experience the peace that surpasses all understanding. One of the most foolish and destructive things we can do is refuse to reject our own will.
Now, I think it’s important to clarify something about this. It’s a common misunderstanding that it’s a passive thing when we submit to God’s Will—when we pray, “Your will be done…”. That we just sit back and say, “Well, Father, I trust you to take care of this, Your will be done, I’m gonna sit here and do nothing because I trust you so much.” That’s just bad theology and a complete misunderstanding of God’s character and will. Once you submit your will to God’s will, you don’t just sit back and do nothing, but you now LIVE your life in submission to God’s Will. You live into that difficult situation in submission to God’s Will. That’s why the catechism says, “Help us and all people to reject our own wills and to obey your will without any back talk…Help us one and all to carry out the work we are called to…” This isn’t a passive thing. It’s an active submission to God’s Will—both his sovereign will and his decreed will. We need to obey God’s will. We need to carry out the work that he has called us to do in this world.
And we’re called to do all of that without any back talk. That’s really important. We’re not rejecting our own will if we’re following God’s will with back talk. Here’s an example I’ve heard before. Let’s say you need your car washed, but don’t have time to get it done yourself, so you tell one of your children to go wash the car. They say, “No way. I’m doing something”—it’s not their will to wash the car. You say, “I don’t care what you’re doing right now, you need to stop doing that thing and wash the car”—it is your will that they wash the car. Then the teenager slams their stuff on the bed and yells, “Fine, I’ll do your stupid will. I’ll wash the stupid car” as they storm out of the house. Then, the entire time they wash the car, they are grumbling in their minds or out of their mouths about how stupid this all is. Did this child ever obey the parent’s will? Not really. Sure, externally, they did what their parent told them to do, but they never rejected their own will. They held onto their will the entire time, that’s why they were angry and frustrated the whole time.
We do this with God’s will all the time—both his sovereign and decreed will. God tells us that we are not to lie, so we tell the truth, all the while wishing we were actually lying. God tells us to run away from sexual immorality, so we stay away from it, kinda-sorta, walking as close to the line as we can, wishing that we could be committing some form of sexual immorality. God tells us to honor the Sabbath and keep it holy and to worship regularly with his people, so we do it, sometimes, when we feel like it, and sometimes with groans and grumbling under our breath about how we wish we were doing something else. That’s not rejecting our own will. That’s still holding onto our will while trying to make it seem like we’re embracing God’s will. That’s hypocrisy.
We do this when it comes to God’s sovereign will too. Something terrible or difficult happens in our lives and we say, “I guess I have to submit to your will but I don’t like it” and we spend our days moaning and groaning and grumbling about how bad God’s Will is for our life. That’s not rejecting your will and embracing God’s Will. That’s pretending like you’re embracing God’s Will, that’s hypocrisy, and it will eat you alive.
There’s this great line in the Gospel of John that is very helpful in this regard. It says, “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will…” (John 7:17, ESV). This is the goal. The goal is that our will would be so aligned with God’s Will that we would will to do his will. To say that a little clearer, the goal is that we would be glad to do God’s will and that we would desire to do God’s will. The goal is that we would not only desire to live the way God has called us to live in the world—that we would desire to tell the truth, desire to flee from sexual immorality, desire to honor the sabbath, and worship with God’s people. The goal is also that we would desire to enter into the difficult situations and seasons of life which God sends—that we would desire to live faithfully and joyfully in the midst of significant health issues, financial issues, or personal issues. The goal is that our will—our desires and motivations—would be so perfectly aligned with God’s will that we would find joy and delight in doing whatever he’s asked us to do and living in whatever situation he has placed us.
John Stott has some difficult words for us in this regard, but I think we all need to hear them. He says, "It is comparatively easy to repeat the words of the Lord's Prayer like a parrot (or indeed a heathen 'babbler'). To pray them with sincerity, however, has revolutionary implications, for it expresses the priorities of a Christian. We are constantly under pressure to conform to the self-centredness of secular culture. When that happens we become concerned about our own little name (liking to see it embossed on our notepaper or hitting the headlines in the press, and defending it when it is attacked), about our own little empire (bossing, influencing and manipulating people to boost our ego), and about our own silly little will (always wanting our own way and getting upset when it is frustrated). But in the Christian counter-culture our top priority concern is not our name, kingdom and will, but God's. Whether we can pray these petitions with integrity is a searching test of the reality and depth of our Christian profession." (Stott, 147-148).
He can speak so strongly and boldly because the foundation of the Christian life is faith and trust in our Savior. When we have faith and trust in our Savior, we don’t need to hold onto our own will, we can submit our will to him. We can do it because we trust him and we know that his will alone is good, perfect, and beautiful. That’s the foundation of the Christian life, which means we need to be able to pray this way sincerely. Our faith and trust must cause us to pray, “Your will be done…” with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
We see this in Jesus himself. What was his prayer in Gethsemane? “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” (Matthew 26:42, ESV). When Jesus prayed this, he was not simply, passively saying, “I’ll die if you want me to die,” but he was fully submitting himself to the Father in this moment. When he prayed, “Your will be done…” in this moment, he was praying that he would endure this trial and suffering according to the will of God—that he would remain faithful to the end. That he would endure this suffering and death according to God’s revealed will. But he was also submitting himself to God’s sovereign will—God’s plans and purposes. Jesus didn’t go kicking and screaming to the cross. Jesus didn’t endure the beatings and shame and cross while mumbling and grumbling under his breath. No. We’re told, “…for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame…” (Hebrews 12:2, ESV).
And because of Jesus’ faithful submission to the Father’s will—he lived a perfect life for us and died a perfect death for us. Because of Jesus’ faithful submission to the Father’s will, we have been cleansed and renewed through faith in him. Not only that but we can also be empowered and equipped by the Holy Spirit to live the way Jesus lived—fully submitted to the Father in every aspect of his life—body and soul. Through faith in Jesus Christ we’ve been given this amazingly beautiful gift of saying, “I trust you with everything. Not my will, but yours be done,” and then experiencing the beautiful rest and peace and joy that comes when we submit to God’s good and perfect and beautiful will.