Your Will Be Done

How quickly do you move when you are asked to do something? How prompt and willing is your obedience to God?

Let God’s will be done. God has told you his will. God does have a secret will. No one can hold back his hand, Daniel 4:35,36. Everything is included in God’s will, Ephesians 1:11. Nothing is too small for God’s concern, Matthew 6:30. This eternal, secret will is always being done. This prayer refers to God’s revealed will, Deuteronomy 29:29. God once spoke to the fathers through the prophets, but he has now spoken in his Son, Hebrews 1:1, 2. God has revealed himself in creation, Romans 1:20, and in conscience, Romans 2:14, 15. You find God’s will revealed in his Word, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, 2 Timothy 3:16, 17. God’s revealed will reflects his holiness, Leviticus 11:44.

Pray for God’s will to be done. Seek to do God’s will in your life. Pray to know God’s will. The Holy Spirit is essential if you are to understand the Word. Study God’s revelation and apply it to your life. Submit to what God has said. You need a new will to obey, and that is the gift of God. Struggle against sin, Romans 7:24, 25. Fight the good fight of faith. Pray for God’s will to be done everywhere. This is more than a personal request. It includes all of your life. The prayer includes all aspects of society. God’s people should be involved in politics, business, service organizations. You are the leaven in your culture. Pray that God’s will my be done by those in authority, 1 Timothy 2:1–3. Work to seek obedience to God’s law in all areas of life. Joel Nederhood describes this as “a dangerous prayer.”

Christ adds a qualifying phrase. Obey God on earth as he is obeyed in heaven. Do God’s will on earth. Our sinful world is disobedient. Since the Edenic rebellion it has been characterized by hatred, crime, terrorism, and war. By nature man is a rebel in his relationship with God. (Even the Christians’s obedience is far from perfect.) You need to address your Father in heaven in this prayer. Self-help programs don’t work (Franklin). Only God’s grace can save you. Only it can make you seek God’s will. God does hear and answer this prayer. The Messianic kingdom brings salvation to God’s people, but also institutes the rule of righteousness. Obey God now. Obedience to God’s will is not reserved for some future, heavenly reign. They must be a present reality. Thus Paul’s command to be what you are.

“This petition does not merely express agreement with God’s decree or resignation to his will, but rather the longing that what God requires from man may be done on earth as it is in heaven. At present God’s will as expressed in his commandments is not being done on account of all that op­poses God on earth. Both re­demption and ethics are im­plied in this ‘will of God.’”

Herman Ridderbos, The Coming of the Kingdom, p. 247

Let it be done as it is in heaven. There is perfect obedience in heaven. The angels obey perfectly, Psalm 103:20–22. The glorified saints obey perfectly. Christ obeyed perfectly, as his prayer reflected, Matthew 26:39. While this obedience took place on earth, it was not of the earth. Only Christ’s obedience to God’s will can satisfy for sin. All our righteousness is like filthy rags. Because of Christ’s obedience, the Holy Spirit enables you to pray for God’s will and to do the will of God. Obey God completely, heartily, and immediately. Don’t give the partial, excuse-filled obedience of Saul, 1 Samuel 15:22, 23. Love and obey God with all that you are, Deuteronomy 6:4, 5. Just as the angels in heaven stand ready to carry out God’s will immediately, do not delay your obedience. Pray for the day, which will be achieved perfectly only at Christ’s return, when the earth will be full of this kind of obedience.

Thank God for the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. In his human will, Jesus prayed for the cup to be removed. He understood, far better than any other person could, what it would mean to drink the cup of a holy God’s anger against sin.

“The prayer looks for the perfect accomplishment of what God wills, and that in the deeds of those he has created as well as in what he does himself. It points to no passive acquiescence but to an active identification of the worshiper with the working out of the divine purpose; if we pray that way we must live that way. We see something of the cost of praying this prayer by reflecting on the way Jesus used it (Luke 22:42). In heaven God’s will is perfectly done now, for there is nothing in heaven to hinder it, and the prayer looks for a similar state of affairs on earth.”

Leon Morris, The Gospel according to Matthew, pages 145–146

Jesus prayed, “Not my will, but yours be done.” He fully did his Father’s will. In doing that, he paid for your sins and failures. His righteousness covers the time when, instead of doing God’s will, we follow our own sinful desires and give in to Satan’s temptations. But his death and resurrection have also brought you into the heavenlies. Your life is now hidden with God in Christ. The enslaving power of sin has been broken, and you are enabled to set your minds on things above. Paul starts, not by doubting the Colossians, but by reminding them of their new reality in Christ. Against that background, the utter contradiction of allowing the deeds of the flesh to continue is striking.

This week pray that God’s will may be done more fully throughout the earth. And you, obey with the kind of reverent, joyful service the angels render in heaven. Above all, give thanks that Jesus prayed, “Your will be done,” and then, for you, went to the cross!