Are you really praying, "your Kingdom come"? If you are, then it is natural to move on to the petition that follows it - "your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Quite obviously, if we are seriously committed to the coming of the Kingdom, we must also be seeking the fulfilment of God's will on earth. There cannot be one without the other.
But what do we mean by "the will of God"?
Some people have tended to view life as if we are on a set of railway tracks - the course of life, so these folk believe, in both major events and small incidents, follows through some pre-determined plan until the end comes for us. They would view "the will of God" as this pre-determining plan.
There was an old song which said, "Que sera sera. Whatever will be will be." I confess that I haven't studied the lyrics closely. But it always seemed to express a kind of fatalism about the events of life.
From a Christian perspective too there are those who have placed a very strong emphasis on the predetermining, over-riding will of God - almost to the point of denying human responsibility and response to the Gospel.
At the end of the eighteenth century, a cobbler by the name of William Carey heard the call of God to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Carey is often called "the father of modern missions". In fact, when Carey put his plans to the Baptist Church of his day, he was met with stiff opposition from those who argued that, if God wanted to convert the heathen, he would do it himself without Carey's help.
There is sin in the world and in our lives, and God is good and righteous. We can't charge God with sin, nor excuse ourselves for what is so clearly a denial of his will. God has in fact made us as creatures with an ability to choose - We aren't robots but creatures who are able to will to do his will. But we have been disobedient and have chosen what isn't his will.
And when, like some of Carey's contemporaries, those of us who believe fail to heed the Lord's call to carry the Gospel into the wider community, then we the Church have also chosen what isn't his will.
So an important part of the will of God is his redemptive purpose, his desire to save sinners. Judgement will surely fall on sin, but the Lord "is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Pet. 3.9). God has provided the way of forgiveness and salvation in Christ, and calls us to repent and believe this good news. And he calls on all those who believe to take this message into the community.
On one occasion Jesus was asked, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" Jesus had fed the five thousand. Perhaps they were hoping for some plan and call to political action. His reply was, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent" (Jn 6.28,29). In a rebellious world, this becomes the beginning-point for doing the will of God. Yes, there's plenty of action too, but faith in the Lord Jesus is where it all must begin.
In Matthew 26.36-46, we read of Jesus praying this prayer, too. He was in the Garden of Gethsemane. He knew his "hour" had come. He was very sorrowful - soon he would be dying on the Cross for the sins of the world. At the heart of his prayer are the words, "Your will be done."
Sometimes we have viewed this Gethsemane prayer as a kind of Stoic resignation to Fate - as if Jesus is saying, "Please save me from this awful thing, but if that cannot be I resign myself to it." Yet as we read the account of what happened next it's not the record of someone who is the victim of Fate. He had dared to say, "I lay [my life] down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again" (Jn 10.18). Later he said to Pilate, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above" (Jn 19.11a) - a staggering claim that wass validated in his resurrection.
When Jesus prayed this prayer he wasn't thinking about himself, but about the sinful world he had come to save. There was, of course, a very natural revulsion at the thought of the Cross. So he asked whether there might be some other way that forgiveness might be made possible for us.
But when he prayed for the Father's will to be done, his heart was going out to this world with all its guilt, frustration, anxiety and rebelliousness! And his prayer for this world, his prayer for others, became a prayer, not of resignation, but of commitment and involvement.
Jesus had positively committed himself to the Father's will. And in the intense agony and shame of crucifixion, he prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Lk. 23.34a). His prayer for the Father's will wasn't a prayer of resignation, but of commitment.
And that is how it must be for us. Too often our prayer for God's will has become an excuse for us to opt out of our responsibilities!
So as we pray for God's will to be done, we need to acknowledge that so often we haven't done it - and to seek his forgiveness and help. And he means us to consciously seek to know his will - through prayer, reading the Bible, fellowship, worship, service...
What is God's will for you? for your family? for your church? May we learn to pray with understanding and commitment - "Your will be done!"
