To pray this section of the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples is to acknowledge several things that are central to our life 'on earth'.
We have, if we believe in our Lord Jesus, an eternal life with Him after this present life on earth comes to its end (John 3:36). This prayer addresses not so much what we would desire for personal fulfilment but what God would desire for His earth (world) that He created.
The prayer matures from the “Lord, bless Mum and Dad, my brother and sister, my home, my job, my friend John, and me – Amen” approach to a genuine concern for God's will to be done for the benefit of all mankind and of His creation. But of course that concern is ours too.
A Little Matter of Authority
This is the uncomfortable bit. In praying for God's perfect will to be done on earth, we have to ask: who has the highest authority in the earth? Even though satan may have temporary legal authority over rebellious mankind, the final authority does not rest with him, or with Supreme Courts or national or political leaders; and looking at man's history, it's not with us either!
Jesus makes it quite clear that ALL authority has been given to Him (Matt 28:18) and since He and the Father (to whom we are praying) are one, it follows that God's will is expressed in what Jesus has said and done.
God's will, both for all people and for His earth, is bound up with the Kingdom that Jesus came to earth to bring in accordance with His character and nature – “Thy Kingdom come on earth”, and “Thy will be done on earth”, are two sides of the same coin. Although there are at least three heavens (2 Cor 12:2) and God is omnipresent, the 'heaven' in this prayer - the “highest heaven” (Ps 115:16) – is, in Jewish thought, God's primary abode. This word is a synonym for God, to avoid misusing or profaning His Holy Name (Ex 20:7). So this prayer is a request for Father's will, His good and perfect will of love, to be done in all the earth under His authority, partly through us, for the benefit of all His creation.
God’s Safe, Good and Perfect Will
Isaiah found this ultimate authority when he was given a vision of God in the Temple in around 740 BC, when he saw the sovereign Lord and King (Isa 6:1-5). Isaiah's response was total submission1 to the King and to His call for an apostle – Hineni sh'lacheni, “Here am I, send me” (shalach is Hebrew for a 'sent one'). God's will and His creation are tov me'od (very good), and is ALWAYS (even in discipline) the very best for us – good, dependable and fully trustworthy, because He is totally faithful. Who would not want this earth to be under the authority of the King whose will is “very good”?
We know that the physical earth is under His sovereign rule, but will we also be obedient to the authority of our Lord and King? Jesus said, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, but do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). It makes no sense NOT to do what is God's best for us.
Jesus Himself submitted to His Father's will in His time of deep anguish and distress in Gethsemane, to bring in the Kingdom, and this could be true for us too in our times of suffering. God is our safe hiding place in these times, so let us not hide from our hiding place as Adam did, by seeking to be independent of God. Let us not stray from our safe place by seeking independence from God, but stay safe under His authority. We can follow Mother Theresa's encouragement prayer2 and the lovely poem by Minnie Haskins,3 quoted by King George VI in WWII. For God's hands are a safe place for us.
Following Through with This Prayer
So, how may we follow through with this prayer? The expression of will is made through the mind. When God created the heavens and the earth, He spoke His thought and will into being (Gen 1:3). Wonder-fully, this is also true for each one of us, as we see in Psalm 139:13,15. This psalm tells us that each one of us was a thought in the mind of God, created even before our conception (v16) in a specific time and place, in order to grow up to know and love Him as a Father, and to test and approve what is His good, pleasing and perfect will for us (Rom 12:2-3).
Paul reminds us that to do this we need to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. We may pray, “Lord, Thy will be done”, but that renewal starts with our “Yes, Lord”. Can we too, say, “Not my will, Lord, but Thy will be done”? If this were done in governments, local councils, families, even all believing church groups, what a different place this earth (world) would be.
Some of these do praise God (like in the annual Prayer Breakfast in New York last month, where President Trump closed with, “For us here in Washington, we must never ever stop asking God for the wisdom to serve the public according to His will”4), but individually it starts with us, as we submit our will to His authority. The choice to reject or be independent of His authority and seek power by secular thinking, or force, is the enemy of this process, to the world's great loss and distress, as we well know. Thank God that He gives people, and nations, a second chance to change our ways. But time is short. Let us pray this into being.
Knowing Him
Lastly, many of God's “I will...” statements in Scripture are linked with His purpose that people might know Him. This is a major purpose of God's will, that all might come to know Him (Heb. yada – a close Father/son relationship) but we cannot fully know the 'infinite and transcendent' so this can only be achieved through His self-disclosure in Jesus, who is the exact expression of the Father's being.
For us to say (by our lives), as Jesus did, “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven”, is thus a pathway to our knowing Him (Jer 24:7), because His will done in us displays His nature, sanctifies and exalts His name, and echoes the seraphim's prophetic calling to one another in their worship of the King: “The whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3).
For this we can give thanks in all circumstances, and in this at least we can fulfil His specific will for us in Christ Jesus (1 Thess 5:18).
Author: Greg Stevenson
References
1 Submission - Latin, sub, mittere, to be put or sent under the authority of a superior being.
2 As Mother Theresa said, “Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting yourself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depths of His heart.”
3 GOD KNOWS by Minnie Louise Haskins (1875-1957):
And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied: “Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way.”
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.
4 President Trump's closing prayer at the Annual Presidents' Prayer Breakfast, New York, February 2017, with representatives from 140 nations, quoted in Ari Sorko-Ram, It's a new day in Washington, Maoz Report, March 2017.