After writing about the phrases “Hallowed Be Your Name” and “May Your Kingdom Come” from Jesus’s model prayer, I think it might be good to just keep going and study the whole prayer line-by-line. I wasn’t going to continue this study because I’m pretty sure I know what Jesus means by “may your will be done,” but then I remembered what Paul said: “If someone thinks he knows something, he does not yet know to the degree that he needs to know” (1 Cor. 8:2, NET). We need to beware of intellectual pride that makes us think there’s nothing more to learn from “basic” concepts about God that we’ve already “mastered.” There’s always more to learn where God is concerned.
Prioritizing God’s Will
We find versions of Jesus’s model prayer in two gospels. In Matthew, it’s part of the Sermon on the Mount when He’s talking about good and bad examples for how to pray (Matt. 6:5-15). In Luke, He uses this prayer to respond to a disciple’s request that Jesus teach them to pray (Luke 11:1-13). You don’t have to repeat this prayer word-for-word to pray correctly, but it’s a very helpful outline for our own prayers.
So pray this way:
Matthew 6:9-13, NET
Our Father in heaven, may your name be honored,
may your kingdom come,
may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts, as we ourselves have forgiven our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one
Submitting to God’s will isn’t the very first thing in the prayer, but it is in the first half. It comes before other, more personal requests but after the proper acknowledgement of God’s holiness and the request that His kingdom come. I’m not sure how important the order is, but it strikes me as interesting that Jesus put the Father’s will before other, more individual requests like daily bread or personal deliverance. That’s a priority list Jesus modeled in His own life.
Jesus and the Father’s Will
Remember, it’s our Father that we’re talking with here. We come before God not as some distant petitioners, but as His own children. There’s a relationship established before we even get to this prayer, and it’s the same type of relationship that Jesus has with the Father (John 16:27; 17:23; 1 John 3:1-2).
Before Jesus’s death, He prayed, “My Father, if possible, let this cup pass from me! Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Matt. 26:39, NET; see Matt. 26:36-46; Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:39-46). This wasn’t the first time He’d prioritized the Father’s will. Doing the Father’s will was one of His main focuses in life, as John records several times in his gospel.
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to complete his work.”
John 4:34, NET
“I can do nothing on my own initiative. Just as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me.”
John 5:30, NET
“For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.”
John 6:38, NET
I imagine with this focus that the model prayer and the prayer in Gethsemane were not the only times Jesus prayed, “may your will be done.” It was likely at the forefront of His mind frequently, whether He was formally praying at the time or not. And since we’re supposed to become like Jesus, doing the Father’s will should be a priority for us as well.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven—only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”
Matthew 7:21, NET
“For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
Matthew 12:50, NET
Jesus has a close, personal, familial relationship with people who do the Father’s will. Additionally, only those who do His will can enter the kingdom of heaven. The emphasis that Jesus placed on following His Father’s will and the way He talked about it as a requirement for us reveals just how important it is that we do this. We need to align ourselves with God’s will, as Jesus did, if we want to spend forever in His family.
What Is God’s Will?
When Jesus talked about God’s will, He often emphasized how it relates to God’s overall plan. The Father is making a family, and it’s His will that as many people as possible receive salvation and eternal life (John 6:38-40; Matt. 11:25-27; 18:14). That gives us an overall view of God’s will, desire, and purpose. But it still doesn’t tell us what it means for us to do God’s will.
“What do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ The boy answered, ‘I will not.’ But later he had a change of heart and went. The father went to the other son and said the same thing. This boy answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did his father’s will?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, tax collectors and prostitutes will go ahead of you into the kingdom of God!”
Matthew 21:28-31, NET
Jesus shared this parable shortly before His death. He “entered the temple courts” and “the chief priests and elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching” to question Him and challenge His authority (Matt. 21:23, NET). These were the religious leaders, the people who probably thought they were doing God’s will better than anyone else and living more righteous lives. But as Jesus pointed out several other times, thinking you’re righteous isn’t the same thing as actually living by God’s words (Matt. 5:17-20; 23:1-3). If you want to do the father’s will, then you actually need to follow His commands.
There are several things that Paul, Peter, and John describe as “God’s will” for us in their writings. It was God’s will that Jesus save us from our sins (Gal. 1:4; Eph. 1:11). It’s His will that we obey Him from the heart, become holy, give thanks always, do good, and live in accordance with His ways rather than fleshy human desires (Eph. 6:6; 1 Thess. 4:3; 5:18; 1 Pet. 2:15; 4:2). Sometimes, it’s in accordance with His will that we suffer even while doing good (1 Pet. 3:17; 4:19). But we also know that it’s His will that we’ll grow, mature, and “receive the promise” of eternal life if we align ourselves with His will (Col. 4:12; 1 John 2:17; Heb. 10:36).
Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—alive, holy, and pleasing to God—which is your reasonable service. Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God—what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.
Romans 12:1-2, NET
The will of God isn’t just one thing. It includes all His desires and plans, for the universe and for us. In some ways it’s very simple–it’s God’s will to save humanity and doing His will involves following Him. In other ways, it’s something complex enough we can spend our whole lives learning to understand. Developing knowledge of His will and doing His will are key parts of our ongoing Christian walk.
For this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, have not ceased praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may live worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects—bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the display of all patience and steadfastness, joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.
Colossians 1:9-12, NET
Look at why Paul says he asked God to fill people with “the knowledge of His will.” It’s so that we can “live worthily of the Lord,” please Him, bear fruit, do good deeds, grow “in the knowledge of God,” receive strength, display “patience and steadfastness,” and “joyfully give thanks.” As God shares deeper understanding of His will with us and we learn to pray “may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” our lives will be transformed. We will “live out the message ” rather than “merely listen to it” (James 1:22, NET). We’ll align ourselves with what He’s doing to accomplish His will. We’ll even be doing His will, helping fulfill the prayer “may your will be done on earth” as we live our lives in accordance with His will
Featured image by Claudine Chaussé from Lightstock
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