2007-08-24 - The Prayers of Christ

#7 ~ The Lord's Prayer, cont'd.

"Your will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven."

When I was doing research on thoughts others have had about this part of "The Lord's Prayer," my internet search produced some interesting "hits," including a business that specializes in estate planning!

Many of us repeat these words every week during our church services, but I think that if we really thought about the full implications of the words, we might not utter them so lightly. It's actually a very scary prayer, if we mean what we are saying.

Can we honestly pray, "Your will be done, even if it isn't the same as my will." What if God's will doesn't translate into God healing our loved ones here on Earth, solving our financial problems, giving us a better job, keeping the hurricane away etc.? What if He allows the "bad" things to continue to happen? Knowing that, could we still pray this prayer? I believe (for me, anyway) this is the most difficult part of the prayer, and every time I say those words, I mentally wonder if I mean them "with all my heart."

Just as at one point, a man asked Jesus to "help my unbelief," perhaps we should request that God will help us to really seek His will, with no "ifs" or "buts."

And we know that, as Romans 8:28 promises us, even when the bad times do come, God will bring good out of them, and there are no "ifs" or "buts" about that, either. Paul writes that all things work for good - not some, or even most. I urge you - along with myself - to ask God to help us truly pray with all our hearts, the words "Your will be done." If we reach the place where we can succesfully do that, we will have that "peace that passeth understanding."

Comments or Questions?
Jan

cfdevjan@aol.com
http://www.cfdevotionals.org