Pray Boldly!

“Your will be done on earth as in heaven.” In the prayer we affectionately call the Lord’s Prayer we refer to that phrase as the Third Petition. Remember that a petition is specific request. There are seven petitions in the Lord’s Prayer as we pray it. After addressing God as our Father in heaven, we ask that his Name be kept holy among us, and that his Kingdom come. Then we go on to ask that the will of God be done on earth as it is done in heaven.

As I read the Gospel lesson earlier in the service you may have wondered why that part of the Lord’s Prayer was missing in Luke’s Gospel. The simple answer is that the prayer we pray is a combination of the prayers Jesus taught in Matthew 6 and Luke 11. It seems that Jesus taught the key thoughts that believers should put in their prayers to our Heavenly Father, but he didn’t lock in a precise wording. That’s actually a great reminder for all of us so that we don’t slip into thoughtless prayers.

As a lead-in to our sermon for this morning I want us to focus our attention just on the Third Petition. What exactly are we asking when we pray, “your will be done on earth as in heaven?” In his Small Catechism Martin Luther wrote, “God’s good and gracious will certainly is done without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may be done among us also.” And how is God’s will done? Luther went on to write, “God’s will is done when he breaks and defeats every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh, which try to prevent us from keeping God’s name holy and letting his kingdom come. And God’s will is done when he strengthens and keeps us firm in his Word and in the faith as long as we live. This is his good and gracious will.” Using the Scriptures Martin Luther nailed down what it means to pray, “your will be done on earth as in heaven.”

But for just a few minutes I want you to think about the fact that at times in prayer believers are actually asking God to have “their will be done.” Right? In our Old Testament Lesson for today we heard Abraham bartering with God over whether or not there were enough righteous people living in Sodom and Gomorrah for him to spare those cities. In our Gospel Reading Jesus taught us to ask, seek, and knock. Again, aren’t we asking God to at least consider doing our will? Yes, it seems obvious that often when we come to God in prayer, we are asking him to do what we want, in other words, our will. We may not say the exact words but many of our prayers could be summarized with the words, “please let my will be done.”

So, is there an answer to this apparent contradiction in our prayer life? How can we on one hand ask God to do something our way? But then in the same prayer we seem to undermine what we ask by praying that God would do what he wants and not what we want.

We find some answers to this challenging question in the Old Testament lesson for this Sunday. Abraham asked God to do what he wanted instead of what God had planned. He boldly stood before God and asked that what he wanted to be done instead. As we direct our attention to the example of Abraham praying for the city of Sodom, we will find encouragement to:

“PRAY BOLDLY!”

I. With great confidence in God

II. With great humility toward God

The events in the Old Testament Lesson for this Sunday came on the heels of some big news that God shared with Abraham and Sarah. We considered their “visit with God” in our sermon last Sunday. The good news for this elderly couple was so important that the LORD appeared in a human body to deliver it. Accompanied by two angels, also appearing as humans, the LORD God stopped at Abraham’s tent for a visit. He told him that within a year he and his wife, Sarah, would be parents.

After what must have been an enjoyable visit with Abraham and Sarah the LORD and the two angels got up to leave. They headed toward Sodom and Gomorrah. It appears that Abraham walked with them for a while to see them on their way. But the LORD stopped and shared his plans with Abraham. The two angels went on ahead. The Old Testament lesson that I read earlier began with these words, “20 Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.” Abraham was able to read between the lines. He understood what the LORD was going to do. The wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah would certainly be destroyed. But remember that Abraham’s nephew, Lot, and his family lived in Sodom. So, Abraham challenged God’s will with his own will through a series of bold prayers. He prayed with great confidence in God, and yet with great humility toward God.