Prayer 07 - Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

 

A series of meditations on prayer

Hier reeks oordenkings is ook in Afrikaans beskikbaar

The 1st Medetation Prayer 01 - Why should a believer pray?

The Previous Medetation: Prayer 06 -Your kingdom come

The next Meditation: Prayer 08 - Give us each day our daily bread

Prayer 07

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Micah 6 v 8 HCSB

Mankind, He has told you what is good and what it is the LORD requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God.

Rom. 8 v 28 HCSB

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.

 

The will of God. It has been a stumbling block from the beginning against which mankind has rebelled. Putting God's will above your own sinful will is humanly impossible. This can only happen when we are saved by our faith in the gospel and God leads us to it through His Spirit. That is what we are praying for in this prayer.

 

The prayer to obey God's will involves asking God to lead us through His Spirit to give up our own sinful will, for our own will is the cause of all our misery. Giving up our own will is therefore a matter of repentance, because although we ask God to lead us to it through His Spirit, you are not passive in giving up your own will.

 

In giving up my own will, I must surrender myself to God's will. This means that I must accept that God's will is good and just, because only our Good Father's will is good and holy.

 

Even though we may not always understand God's will, we must accept both his revealed will (as embodied in his Word) as well as his hidden will, which is expressed in his providence, as perfect and good so that we can be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and with a view to the future we can have a firm confidence in our faithful God and Father that no creature shall separate us from His love; for all creatures are so completely in His hand that without His will they cannot so much as move.

 

Furthermore, it means that I accept and do not find fault with God's will or try to know better than God. It also means that I must not try to pervert God's will to suit my own will.

 

In this we also pray that God will guide us through His Spirit to obediently accept the position in which He places us within His church (office of believer, deacon, elder or teacher) and that we will perform the duties associated with it so that it will extend to his glory and the expansion of his Kingdom.

 

This obedience also involves that I will see my daily task in whatever form as the place in which God has placed me and that I will carry it out as if it were for the Lord.

 

The conclusion ‘as in heaven’ is that we, like the heavenly beings before his throne, will fulfill God's will with joy and that we will also pray for the return of Jesus Christ at the consummation when we as new people will no longer know of a conflict with God's will.

 

In this third prayer we therefore pray that God will guide us through his Spirit and give us the ability to be obedient so that we will give up our own will and carry out his will as it happens in heaven.

 

Amen