LET YOUR WILL BE DONE…
(Matthew 6:9-13)
We all face
difficult decisions in life, how can we know the decisions we make are in God’s
will? As a young Christian one aspect of Christian living petrified me more than
anything else was, knowing and doing God’s will. I was fearful to make decisions thinking that
I might do something out of God’s will and miss the boat altogether. It was in
1985, I was seeking the Lord to find out what was his will for me once I completed
my bachelors in science.
As
I prayed and sought the scriptures God spoke to me through a passage in Ecclesiastics,
which altered my own plans, and helped me to make a career decision of going in
to Missions. From that moment on I made it a point to seek God’s will whenever
I am faced with bigger challenges and difficult decisions. It is not to say
that I always got it right, but as I grew older in my faith, as I continue to
study his word, I have a fair sense of what God’s will is for my life.
Paul
Little, in Affirming the Will of God notes, “Has
it ever struck you that the vast majority of the will of God for your life has
already been revealed in the Bible? That is a crucial thing to grasp.” If
we desire to seek and know what God’s will is for us individually and
corporately as church we need not to go anywhere but diligently search and do
the will of God revealed in the scriptures. We have been studying the Lord’s
Prayer that our Lord Jesus Christ taught his disciples. The prayer began by establishing a
relationship between us and God as our heavenly father. We learned that God’s
name is Holy therefore it is to be regarded Holy. We also learned that we are
to pray and work for God’s Kingdom to be established on Earth.
Today
we will look at another aspect: “Your
Will be Done.” Matthew 6:10, “your kingdom come, your will
be done, on earth
as it is in heaven.” This prayer has two parts to
it, God’s kingdom and God’s will. When we pray, “your kingdom come.” We are not
praying in the sense of God’s kingdom to “come” into existence. Because it has already
come and it is here. According
to, Matthew 3:2, “Repent, for the
kingdom of heaven has come near.” The gospel writer Luke makes it
more personal, in Luke 17:21, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not
something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it
is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst. “So, our prayer now is, for
that kingdom of God which is in our hearts and manifested in the world through
His church, to be realized more and more today and every day on the earth. The
second part, “Your will be done” logically follows, “your kingdom come.” Where
do we want to see God’s kingdom come, and his will to be done? The later part
of the prayer suggests, it should be on the earth as it is in heaven.” That brings
us to a couple of questions: What is the will of God? How can we know and do
the will of God?
I. WHAT IS GOD'S WILL?
When it comes to talk about the
will of God we make it so mysterious and complicated. Many books have been
written about how to find God’s will for our personal lives. But no amount of
knowledge or information can outweigh the power of the outcome of a single act
of obedience to God’s will. As I study God’s word I find two aspects to God’s
will. First, the sovereign will of God, and the second is the will of God’s
command.
A. God's Sovereign Will
God
is sovereign over all things, which means he can do any, every and all
things. He governs the universe by his
own counsel, authority and power. He
created all things so he has the right over all things. He causes all things to
work together to accomplish his purposes. In other words, nothing and no one
can stop God’s plans from coming to pass. Jesus while he was on the earth always
reiterated that he came not to do his will but his father’s will. He spoke about that sovereign will of God in
his prayer in the Garden of gethsemane.
Matthew 26:39 “My Father, if it is possible, may this
cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
It was not the Roman governor who
handed Jesus over to be crucified, or the guards who pierced nails into the
feet and the hands of Jesus that put Jesus to death on the cross, no doubt God
used all of them but in the end, it was the sovereign will of God. The Apostle
Peter in his address on the day of Pentecost attests Jesus’ crucifixion to the
sovereign will of God. Acts, 4:27-28, “Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met
together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire
against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power
and will had decided beforehand should happen.”
Paul reaffirms in Ephesians 1:11, “In
him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who
works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.” Daniel nails
down this truth that God’s sovereign will is not only extended to the heaven
above but also to the earth below. Daniel 4:3-5 All
the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with
the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his
hand or say to him: “What have you done?” Can anyone counsel God?
More can be said of God’s sovereign
will, but for now, it is sufficient to know that God has a sovereign will, and it
will come to pass no matter what. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray,
“Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, his concern was not so much
about God’s sovereign will, but much about the will of his command, which largely
depended on the obedience of his disciples and his subsequent followers. Let’s look
at the will of his command.
B. God's Will of Command:
His will is what he commands us to do. The sovereign will of
God we do whether we believe in it or not. But the will of his command is what
we often fail to do. For example, in Matthew chapter 7 Jesus said, “Not
everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but
only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
Why? Because not everyone will do
the will of God. Do you want to know what is the will of his command? The
Apostle Paul lays out some specific commands writing to the Thessalonian
Church. I Thess 4:3, “It is God’s will
that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality.” Here
we have a specific instance of what God’s command for us is: holiness,
sanctification and sexual purity. Here are a few more scriptures on God’s will.
We are to: “Rejoice
always, pray continually, give
thanks in all circumstances.” I Thess 5:16-18. Wise living. Ephe
5:15-21. Doing good. I Pet 2:15. Loving one another. John 13:34-35. Loving our
enemies and praying for those who persecute us. Matthew 5:43-48. Suffering for
being a Christian. I Peter 4:12-19. All these commands are directed towards us
personally. There is one command I believe is given corporately for us as a
church. Matthew 28:19-20, “Therefore go and make disciples of
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey
everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the
very end of the age.”
This will of
God’s command we must take it to heart seriously, because more than our
personal sanctification God is interested in saving all people everywhere in
the world. “The Lord is not slow in
keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you,
not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” II Pet 3:9.
That is the
reason why we support missionaries who are spreading the good news. That is why
we want everyone to get involved in the outreach to the homeless, or other activities
in the community, because God loves everybody and he does not want anyone to
perish. The sovereign will of God, will be accomplished whether we believe
in it or not. But the will of his command to reach out to the world with the
gospel is left to us His Church. Therefore, we are taught to pray, “your
kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
II.
HOW CAN WE KNOW AND DO GOD’S WILL?
Let
me illustrate. Our children in our home we hope that they know our biblical
values, our prayers, wishes and desires for them. Whether or not they would
live up to them is yet to be seen. But how do they know what we want from them?
It is because of our love for one another, and regular communication. That is
how it works in knowing and doing God’s will. Look at the logical order of the
Lord’s prayer. Jesus first affirmed our relationship with God. He is our father
and we are his children. Then he taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your
will be done on earth as it is in heaven. “God our heavenly father loves to
reveal his will for us.
It
also takes effort from us to want to know His will. The only way we will get to
know him is by spending time with him, in prayer and reading His word. The more
we dig into God’s word, the more of his will we will discover. For example, you
have discovered a command by reading Matthew 5: 13,14, “You are the salt of the
earth…. You are the light of the world.” You ask yourselves, how can I be the
salt and the light in the world today?
Dallas
Willard, in Divine Conspiracy notes, “Speaking to these common people, “the
multitudes,” who through him had found blessing in the kingdom, Jesus tells
them it is they, not the “best and brightest” on the human scale, who are to
make life on earth manageable as they live from the kingdom. God gives them
“light” truth, love, and power that they might be the light for their
surroundings. He makes them “salt” to cleanse, preserve, and flavor the times
through which they live.” Our heavenly father longs for his church to be the
salt and the light in our communities. When we pray, your kingdom come, your
will be done on earth as it is in heaven, let’s believe that it will happen,
because God is able and willing and more than ready to answer that prayer. We
may be that answer. May the Holy Spirit empower us and give us the grace to not
only pray, but also to work so that his will, will be done on earth, as it is
in heaven. Amen!
