by Bob Hostetler

Maybe you’ve said it. I know I have: “If I had my way . . . ”

Sometimes it’s prompted by dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs. At other times, it has more to do with a disappointment I’ve faced or a fear I have. And most of the time (maybe all of the time?) it’s an arrogant endorsement of my own wisdom and righteousness.

That’s why it’s a good thing that I pray. And even better, that I pray daily. And still better that the Lord’s Prayer is always a part of my prayers because it includes an important reminder to me in the phrase “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). It’s a reminder that “my way” isn’t always, or even usually, the best way. It’s a prayer that, when I’m most attentive and aware, says at least three crucial things.

I belong. In Lord, Teach Us to Pray, Andrew Murray wrote, “Because the will of God is the glory of heaven, the doing of it is the blessedness of heaven. As the will is done, the kingdom of heaven comes into the heart. And wherever faith has accepted the Father’s love, obedience accepts the Father’s will.” Praying “Thy will be done” is an affirmation that I belong to God’s kingdom and His kingdom belongs to me — that just as His kingdom is undisputed and unimpeded in heaven, where the angelic host does His will instantly, constantly, completely, and worshipfully, so I get to play a part in bringing that heaven to earth.

I surrender. Implicit in the prayer for God’s will to “be done on earth as it is in heaven” is the praying soul’s submission to God’s will. It makes no sense to pray for God’s will to be done everywhere but in me. Thus, “Thy will be done” means that I concede that I don’t know everything . . . and that He does. It means I give up having my own way. It means I will do what He says. It is an act of surrender, willingness, and eager, obedient intention.

I choose love. If the way of Jesus is the way of love — and it is, for He emphasized the commands to “love God” and “love your neighbor” as the sum of all the commandments — then sincerely praying for His will to be done on earth means obeying His command to love all and love always. It means rejecting “all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking . . .with all malice” (Ephesians 4:31) and acting in humility, gentleness, patience, love, kindness, compassion, and forgiveness (vv. 2, 32) toward others. It may also mean personal sacrifice. After all, the words of the Lord’s Prayer were tried and tested, proven and polished, in the Lord’s Passion as He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39). Jesus not only taught “Thy will be done,” He prayed it and lived it unto death “even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8)! “Thy will be done” reminds me daily that “If I had my way” is an infinitely inferior way to think and live. “Thy will be done” re-orients me to the One whose “good and acceptable and perfect will”
(Romans 12:2) is the one path worth following.