‘On Earth’

‘On Earth’

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

Matthew 6:10b

Christ prayed that the will of God His Father would prevail. When Christ teaches His disciples to pray, He teaches them, ‘Your will be done.’  He teaches us to pray in the same way. To carry it one step farther, Christ teaches us to pray ‘Your will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.’ This is what we are praying: ‘Father, not only do I want what You want, but I want Your Will to be done here and now, on earth.’ This has far-reaching implications, both broadly and personally. We are praying that Our Father will do His Will, and cause others to do His Will. We are praying that He will bring us to do His Will. This may not be comfortable or easy for us; in fact, in many cases it will not be comfortable at all. Here again, Christ is the Great Pattern for our attitudes and behavior. His prayer was ‘not My will, but Yours, be done.’ Christ does not teach us to do what He does not do. If His prayer was that the Father’s Will be done in the present moment, no matter how excruciating the results, we who follow Christ, must take the same line. This is a high level of spiritual maturity which is hard to experience. We may employ the words much sooner than we can be comfortable with the reality of having God really do His Will here and now. Only Christ can bring us to such maturity. Only He can enable us to follow Him whole-heartedly, and to pray, ‘Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’

Our Glorious Living God,
We praise You that Your Will is perfect.
We rejoice that we can trust You to do
Your Will for us, in us, and through us,
and that all will be well.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning