On Earth…And…Heaven

On Earth…And…Heaven

…Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Matthew 6:10b

We have been considering the will of God and Christ’s teaching us to pray in regard to it. When we pray, ‘Your will be done on earth….’ we are saying that we want what God wants, and that we want it here and now. To that, we add the completion of the phrase, ‘as it is in heaven.’ So, we want what God wants; we want it here and now; and we want His Will to be done perfectly and for all eternity. God’s Will is done perfectly in heaven. Christ is at one with the Father regarding His Will being done. Christ declared, ‘I do always those things which please the Father.’ He said, ‘My will is to do the will of Him Who sent me, and to finish His work.’ When Christ teaches us to pray, ‘Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,’ He is teaching us to adopt the same spirit and attitude which He Himself has toward the Will of God. Hence, Christ brings us to the place of praying that God will do His Will here, now, always, and perfectly. ‘As in heaven, so on earth,’ becomes our motto. This becomes very personal when we begin to pray that God will do His Will with regard to us, ‘on earth, as it is in heaven.’ God performed His Will on earth, in the life of Christ, and it meant the cruel sufferings, and painful death of the cross after a life of humiliation. It is hard for us to come to the conclusion that, if we would be like Christ, our life may be very similar. Our hope and help is to look to Christ to show us how to live such a life, that we may, from the heart pray, ‘Your will be done in earth as it is in heaven.’

Our Holy and Wise Father,
we praise You that Your Will is perfect.
We rejoice that You do Your Will
and teach us how to wisely submit unto it.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning