Thy Will Be Done (Part 1)
Luke 11:1-4
Intro. – Many people wonder how God’s sovereignty can be related to praying for His will to be done. If He is sovereign, is not His will inevitably done? Does our will override His will when we pray earnestly and sincerely?
There are many things that seem to be a contradiction but what seems a hopeless contradiction to us is no dilemma to God.
It is absolutely clear from Scripture that God is sovereign and yet not only allows but commands that man exercise his own volition in certain areas. If man were not able to make his own choices, God’s commands would be futile and meaningless and His punishments cruel and unjust. If God did not act in response to prayer, Jesus’ teaching about prayer would also be futile and meaningless.
Our responsibility is not to solve the dilemma but to believe and act on God’s truths, whether some of them seem to conflict or not.
We are to accept every part of every truth in God’s Word, leaving the resolution of any seeming conflicts to Him.
When we pray Thy will be done, we are praying first of all that God’s will become our own will. Second, we are praying that His will prevail all over the earth as it [does] in heaven.
There are two approaches that I want to take in considering this aspect of the Lord’s Prayer. Let’s consider:
I. The Wrong Understanding of God’s Will
A. Many people, including many believers, wrongly understand this part of the Disciples’ Prayer.
1. Some see God’s sovereignty simply as the absolute imposition of a dictator’s will. The logical conclusion of most people who look at God in that way is that there is no point to prayer.
2. Other people are more charitable in their feelings about God. They pray for God’s will to be done simply because that is what the Lord tells them to do. They do not pray so much out of faith as out of capitulation. They do not try to put their wills into accord with the divine will, but rather shift their own wills into neutral, letting God’s will run its course.
B. Our own prayer lives often are weak because we do not pray expecting prayer to change anything.
1. It is easy for Christians to fall into praying that way. Even in the very early days of the church, when faith generally was strong and vital, prayer could be passive and unexpectant. A group of concerned disciples was praying in the house of Mary, John Mark’s mother, for the release of Peter from prison. While they were praying, Peter was freed by an angel and came to the house and knocked on the door. When a servant girl named Rhoda came to the door and recognized Peter’s voice, she rushed back inside to tell the others, forgetting to let Peter in. But the praying group did not believe her, and thought she had heard an angel. When Peter was finally admitted, “they saw him and were amazed” (Acts 12:16). They apparently had been praying for what they did not really believe would happen.
2. We pray out of a sense of duty and obligation, subconsciously thinking that God is going to do just as He wants to do anyway. That is why Jesus gave the parable of the importunate widow—who refused to accept the status quo and persisted in begging, despite receiving no response—for the very purpose of protecting us against that sort of passive and unspiritual resignation. “Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart” (Luke 18:1).
3. The very fact that Jesus tells us to pray Thy will be done on earth indicates that God’s will is not always done on earth. It is not inevitable. In fact, lack of faithful prayer inhibits His will being done. In God’s wise and gracious plan, prayer is essential to the proper working of His divine will on earth.
a. God is sovereign, but looking at God’s sovereignty thinking “What will be will be,” absolutely destroys faithful prayer and faithful obedience of every sort.
b. That is not the divine sovereignty the Bible teaches. It is not God’s will that people die, or why would Christ have come to destroy death? It is not God’s will that people go to hell, or why would His only Son have taken the penalty of sin upon Himself so that men might escape hell? It is not God’s will that people suffer untold sufferings or why would His only Son have taken the penalty of sickness on himself?
C. Other people look at prayer as a means of bending God’s will to their own.
1. They think of God’s providence as a sort of cosmic vending machine, which they can operate simply by inserting the required claim on one of His promises.
2. But Jesus undercuts that notion throughout His model prayer. True prayer focuses on Thy name, Thy kingdom, Thy will.
a. Illustration – Amy Carmichael wrote, “And shall I pray to change Thy will, my Father, until it accord to mine? But no, Lord, no; that shall never be. Rather I pray Thee blend my human will with Thine.”
Transition: The second approach in considering this aspect of The Lord’s Prayer is through:
II. The Right Understanding of God’s Will
A. A part of the right understanding of and attitude toward God’s will is what might be called a sense of righteous rebellion.
1. To be dedicated to God’s will is, by definition, to be opposed to Satan’s.
2. To pray Thy will be done, on earth as it is heaven is to rebel against the worldly idea that sin is normal and inevitable and should therefore be acquiesced to or at least tolerated. It is to rebel against the world system of ungodliness, the dishonoring and rejecting of Christ, and also the disobedience of believers. Weakness in prayer leads us, to abandon a Christian view of God and His plan for redemptive history.
3. To pray for God’s will to be done on earth is to pray against wickedness. To pray for God’s will to be done is to pray for Satan’s will to be undone.
4. To pray for God’s will to be done is to cry with David, “Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered; and let those who hate Him flee before Him” (Psalms 68:1) and with the saints under God’s altar, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, wilt Thou refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:10).
5. To pray rightly is to pray in faith, believing that God will hear and answer our prayers.
a. The greatest hindrance to prayer is not lack of technique, lack of biblical knowledge, or even lack of enthusiasm for the Lord’s work, but lack of faith. We simply do not pray with the expectation that our prayers will make a difference in our lives, in other people’s lives, in the church, or in the world.
B. There are three distinct aspects of God’s will as He reveals it to us in His Word.
1. First, is what may be called His will of purpose.
a. This is the vast, comprehensive, and tolerating will of God expressed in the unfolding of His sovereign plan that embodies all of the universe, including heaven, hell, and the earth.
b. This is God’s ultimate will, of which Isaiah wrote, “The Lord of hosts has sworn saying ‘Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand’” (Isaiah 14:24; Jeremiah 51:29; Romans 8:28; Ephesians 1:9-11).
c. This is the will of God that allows sin to run its course and Satan to have his way for a season. But in God’s appointed time sin’s course and Satan’s way will end exactly according to God’s plan and foreknowledge.
2. Second, is what may be called God’s will of desire.
a. This is within His will of purpose and completely consistent with it. But it is more specific and focused. Unlike God’s will of purpose, His will of desire is not always fulfilled; in fact, it is very unfulfilled in comparison to Satan’s will in this present age.
b. Illustration – Jesus greatly desired that Jerusalem be saved, and He prayed, preached, healed, and ministered among its people to that end. But few believed in Him; most rejected Him, and some even crucified Him. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” He prayed. “I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it!” (Luke 13:34). That was the repeated experience of God’s Son, who came to earth that men might have life, and have it more abundantly. Like the unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem, most people were not willing to come to Jesus for that abundant life.
3. Third, is what may be called God’s will of command.
a. This will is entirely for His children, because only they have the capacity to obey. The will of command is the ardent desire of the heart of God that we who are His children obey Him completely and immediately with a willing heart.
b. “Do you not know” Paul says, “that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:16-18).
4. Application – God’s will of purpose embraces the ultimate end of this world, Christ’s second coming and the setting up of His eternal kingdom. His will of desire embraces conversion; and His will of command embraces the commitment and obedience of His children.
C. The great enemy of God’s will is pride.
1. Pride caused Satan to rebel against God, and pride causes unbelievers to reject God and believers to disobey Him.
2. For God’s will to be accepted and to be prayed for in sincerity and with faith, self-will must be forsaken in the power of the Holy Spirit.
3. Paul said, “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:1-2).
D. When we pray in faith and in conformity to God’s will, our prayer is a sanctifying grace that changes our lives dramatically. Prayer is a means of progressive sanctification.
1. Illustrations – John Hannah said, “The end of prayer is not so much tangible answers as a deepening life of dependency… The call to prayer is a call to love, submission, and obedience,… the avenue of sweet, intimate, and intense fellowship of the soul with the infinite Creator.”
