1 Your Will Be Done
Week 6 The Lord’s Prayer Matthew 6:9-13
Some wise person said, “The investment of a self-centered life yields no dividends that are satisfying or eternal.”
Today, we’re taking a look at the next part of the model prayer Jesus gave to his disciples. He gave this example of effective prayer to us in response to some of his disciples striking up a conversation with him about prayer.
We don’t know exactly why they picked this time and place to talk to Jesus about meaningful prayer. Maybe it was because they saw something lacking in their own prayer times that sparked an interest. Maybe it was because Jesus prayed to the Father on a totally different level than they did.
Whatever the reason, Jesus, on two separate occasions outlines what effective prayer looks like. One example is in Matthew 6, the other in Luke 11. And even though those two prayers are similar, they’re also different, because, one point Jesus makes is not to get hung up on the words. He says pay closer attention to the attitude behind them. His prayer is a template not a mandate.
So he starts with showing us that God is someone approachable and full of grace and that we’re all joined together in the family of God with just two words: “Our Father.” And he points everyone to where the Father lives and the final destination point for all who follow Jesus: heaven. And it’s going to be unlike anything we’ve ever experienced.
Then Jesus moves ahead with this phrase: "Hallowed be Your Name." When we think of "hallowed" we think of "holy" and “blessed,” “revered” and “respected.” He balances the family type of beginning with unparalleled respect for God.
Then he continued with “Your Kingdom come.” God’s Kingdom is both in the here and now and it’s something that’s going to be in the future, where everything will finally for all time be in tune with the holy righteousness of a loving Father. “Your kingdom come,” Jesus said. And he adds, “Your will be done.”
You know, I’ve heard lots of graduation speeches over the years. Some have been good. Most of them were boring. I remember one graduation speech that went on for over an hour! I can’t tell you one thing she said!
At one high school graduation, the valedictorian began his speech with thanking his father. Which sounded good -- at first.
“My father taught me an important lesson,” the young man said. “He told me throughout my entire life that I am the most important person in the world.”
And all through his speech, he talked about how true it was that he was the most important person in the world. He looked out at his fellow students and told them, “Don’t ever think that there is anyone more important than you. Do what you want to do, not what other people want. Your happiness is all that matters.”
Let’s think about that for a second. Isn’t that the attitude that is helping to dismantle our society? Just do what you want to do. Your happiness is all that matters.
It was Timothy McVeigh who thought of himself first, and on his own decided that he had the right to plant a bomb at a government building in Oklahoma City that took the lives of so many people, including a number of children whom McVeigh described as “collateral damage.”
He died self-centered and self-absorbed and never showed any remorse for his crimes. His last statement was a hand written note that included words from the 1875 poem, ’’Invictus,’’ which concludes with the lines: ’’I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.’’
But it’s not just the extremes I’m thinking of. Being self-centered doesn’t have to be as dramatic or catastrophic. It can be something as benign as yelling at a bad driver in traffic. Maybe we honk the horn or yell some obscenity, because at that moment in time, isn’t it true that we’re the most important person on the highway?
And that kind of stuff shows up all the time in many ways.
Yet, the Lord’s Prayer contains that wonderful phrase that calls us to live a life that is not self-centered, but God centered. “Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.”
It is a prayer that Jesus prayed more than once. At a different place and time, and using different words, but saying the exact same thing, Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane as he’s facing death, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” It was the ultimate example of self-less determination and endless love.
It was Jesus saying, “The eternal destination of people is more important to me than my own safety or comfort.” “Your will be done, Father, and not mine.” It’s been always interesting to me that Jesus never complained. He didn’t try to negotiate with the Father for a better deal. He said if there’s another way, great! But if not, your will be done. His commitment to the Father and his faith in the Father never wavered.
When we can’t figure out how certain things can possibly be for our benefit-when things happen – we get sick, laid off, we have to move, we have trouble with a relationship-sometimes we begin to think God is isn’t there. How can this possibly be His will? And if that happens, we have to remind ourselves that His ways and thoughts are above ours. Some kind of good, somehow, will come of it. So praying, "Your will be done," means we don’t expect God to change His plans to accommodate our wishes and we don’t give up if we end up not getting what we pray for.
There are several things we learn from the example of Jesus through his model prayer.
2 First, a self-less life is a focused life. Many of us have seen the pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope. From the far reaches of space, we’re able to see God’s most breathtaking creations. In the beginning, though, the Hubble Space Telescope was not the brilliant piece of machinery that it is today.
After lots of hype and excitement, the telescope was launched and the first images it sent back were blurry. There was a flaw in the mirror. It was a terrible disappointment. That problem was later corrected, but at the time, there was a joke going around that said the only thing NASA learned from the Hubble Telescope was to never name a project that rhymed with “trouble.” It was a huge embarrassment.
A self-centered life is just like the early years of the Hubble Space Telescope. It makes everything out of focus so that you don’t see what’s true or what’s reality – you just see a blurry image of it.
A self-centered life makes us focus all the attention on ourselves. It keeps us from understanding the needs of others and exempts us from serving and giving the way that we should. It taints our perception of what’s good and right.
And so what happens is that we think in terms of “not thy will, but MY will be done.”
3 Something else from the phrase, “Your will be done,” is that if we defer wanting our will to wanting God’s will, it will lead to much more internal peace. Being self-centered can be dangerous.
There was an ambitious farmer who was unhappy about the yield of his crops. He heard of a highly recommended new seed corn, so he bought some and produced a crop the next year that was so abundant his neighbors asked him to sell them some of his seed.
But the farmer refused. He was afraid that if he shared with his neighbors he wouldn’t make as much money. So he refused.
The second year the new seed didn’t produce as good a crop, and when the third-year crop was worse than that, it dawned upon the farmer that his prize corn was being pollinated by the inferior grade of corn from his neighbors’ fields. Had he sold the seed, his own corn would have been protected.
Having a preoccupation with ourselves or our own affairs really doesn’t produce the results we might be seeking.
Author and psychologist, Leon Seltzer said, “Obviously, paying attention to our wants and needs is appropriate, even necessary. But whether we’re feeling extremely bad or nervous about ourselves, worriedly ruminating about how others perceive us, or indulging in grandiose thoughts about our "specialness," we’re descending into a state of toxic self-absorption. And as a personality trait, attending excessively to ourselves—and at the expense of almost all other considerations—is typically regarded not only as abnormal, but as kind of unethical, too. For such behavior depicts almost the opposite of altruism.
(And here’s what’s interesting,) From a variety of phobic, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive impairments, to many depressive disturbances (including bipolar disorder), to various addictions, to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and to most of the personality disorders, self-absorption can be seen as playing a major (if not dominant) role. So any effective treatment of these dysfunctions needs to include significantly reducing these obsessively self-centered—and self-defeating—tendencies.”
The bottom line is deferring our will to God’s will brings stability and security. And it takes the pressure off of us when we decide to relinquish control.
4 The third thing that’s associated with “Your will be done,” from the prayer Jesus taught us is that while it may seem like it’s a losing proposition, but ultimately, we win in the end.
5 Jesus said in Luke 9 (23-25) "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?
And while this is always about a spiritual reward, it can be true in a physical kind reward as well. And here are two polar opposite examples about how that plays out in real life:
In its January 25, l988 issue, TIME magazine ran a story about the videocassette recorder, which was still new at that time, the article said, “Sony Incorporated had made a crucial mistake. While at first Sony kept its Beta technology mostly to itself, JVC, the Japanese inventor of the VHS format, shared its secret with a multitude of other companies. As a result, the market was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the VHS machines being produced.”
This drastically undercut Sony’s market share. The first year, Sony lost 40 percent of the market, and by 1987 it controlled only 10 percent.”
Now nearly 2½ decades later, if you have any Beta videotapes laying around in the attic, there’s no way to play them.
In Ernest Gordon’s true account of life in a World War II Japanese prison camp called, “Through the Valley of the Kwai,” he tells the story about Angus McGillivray. Angus was a Scottish prisoner in one of the camps that was filled with American, Australian, and British soldiers who had helped build the Bridge over the River Kwai.
As you can imagine, camp had become an ugly place to be. It was survival of the fittest. Allies would literally steal from each other and cheat each other; men would sleep on their packs and yet have them stolen from underneath their heads. Survival was everything. It was the law of the jungle...until the news of Angus’ death spread throughout the camp.
No one could believe Angus had died. He was strong, and a soldier that everyone expected to be among the last to die. But actually, it wasn’t the fact of his death that shocked the men the most, but the reason he died. Finally, they pieced together the true story of what really happened.
The Scottish soldiers took their buddy system very seriously. They believed that it was literally up to each of them to make sure their buddy survived. Angus’s buddy was dying, and everyone had given up on him, except Angus.
He made up his mind that his friend would not die as long as he was able to help him. Someone had stolen his buddy’s blanket. So Angus gave him his, and said that he had “just come across an extra one.”
At dinner time, Angus would get his rations and take them to his friend, and told him that he was able to get some “extra food.”
But as his friend began to recover, Angus was slowly going downhill and finally collapsed, slumped over, and died. He had died of starvation complicated by exhaustion.
And as other people learned the details of his death, the ramifications of his unselfishness began a change in the compound. John 15:12 says, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
As Angus’ story was circulated, the other men began to focus on their friends, and began to pool their talents—one was a violinmaker, another an orchestra leader, another a cabinetmaker, another a professor. Soon the camp had an orchestra full of homemade instruments and a church called the “Church Without Walls” that was so powerful, that even the Japanese guards attended the services.
The men began a school, a hospital, and a library. The place was transformed all because Angus gave all he had for his friend.
Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?”
That’s a hard concept for some of us to grasp. It’s completely self-less. It’s putting other people and their needs ahead of ours. It’s a lifestyle choice and completely voluntary.
The cross back then was not a religious symbol. It was simply a tool for executing someone. And in our day, it means that we have to be willing to put God first, other people second, and ourselves last.
Ultimately, when we pray the Lord’s Prayer that’s what we’re praying for. That we would have the ability and resolve to do what Jesus did – even if it means we have to suffer, or be inconvenienced, or even if it costs us financially or in some other dramatic way.
Why? Because neither one of us are the most important thing in the universe. But God is and what he says carries more weight than what I think or what I want or what I feel.
Prayer:
Father, help us to place our lives in Your hands. Help us to let go and submit to Your wisdom and foresight. Help us to surrender to Your will. Yet we confess that we’re afraid to give up control sometimes; we’re afraid of what may happen. So help us to put our will aside and relinquish our desires and discover what your will is for us. One thing is that we know that it is Your will that we become more like Jesus; so help us realize that goal, for Your glory-Amen.
