God's Will Be Done

Living as we do in circumstances in which we receive overwhelming amounts of information and news stories from even the most distant corners of the world, it can keep us off-balance and (depending on what comes into our news feed) perhaps at times even close to despair. But we know that we can regain our footing by turning to God in prayer, and the best prayer is the one taught to us by Christ Himself.

In the Lord's Prayer we pray for God to reign in our lives and in our world: "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

What do we mean when we pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”? We are praying that something will come about, but which has not yet fully happened. We are praying that God will bring about His heavenly purpose on earth. We are praying that God would use us to do His divine will. We are making ourselves available to do the will of our heavenly Father, to fulfill His purpose.

This was the prayer of Mary after the angel Gabriel had revealed to her the will of God in bearing the Incarnate Word, Jesus. “I am the handmaid of the Lord. Be it unto me according to thy word.” Mary prayed that God’s divine will might be done through her life, and the world was transformed because of her “yes” to God’s will. Even our Lord Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God, when He was in agony in Gethsemane, prayed to His Father, “Nevertheless not my will, but thine be done.”

When we pray, “Thy will be done” we are not simply resigning ourselves to whatever happens; rather, we are praying for triumph – that is, the triumph of God’s divine will. This prayer is not an invitation to passively stand by, acquiescing to prevailing circumstances; rather, it is a means of buttressing our resolution to fight for what is right, noble and true, for whatever is pure, lovely and admirable. It is to pray for the spirit of victory, the victory of God’s will, of God’s reign, of God’s kingdom – here on earth, as it already is in heaven.