WHAT DOES 'LET YOUR WILL BE DONE’ MEAN IN MY LIFE?
Sakkie Parsons
Someone wrote to me as follows:
“I want to ask you tonight to explain something to me: What does it mean to pray and ask: ‘Lord let Your will be done in our lives’? And what does that mean the Lord is going to do? ”
First –
Where did these words come from that Christians pray: "Let Your will be done”?
Then of course the answer is Jesus’ own words when He gave us the 'Our Father' prayer.
We read:
MAT 6:9-10
9 Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
What does it mean when I pray this in my prayer?
When I pray this in all sincerity, it means that after I discussed my desires and my problem with my Lord – knowing that He knows best what must happen to me as His child – my overriding desire is that His will shall happen and that this is what I indeed plea to happen in my life.
Of course, it does not always, (I would almost say in most cases), happen the way we want it to happen – simply because we do not see the whole picture like our Lord.
I will say more about this, but before I go any further, I want to share with you how Jesus lived out in His own life here on earth, what He taught us how we should pray:
Jesus knows that His enemies and His traitor are on their way and are almost with Him to go and crucify Him and then we read:
MARK 14:35-36
35 And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.
36 And he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."
In the New Living Translation, this passage read as follows:
35 He went on a little farther and fell to the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by.
36 “Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
I said I was going to come back to what I said namely:
Of course it does not always happen, I almost want to say in most cases does not happen the way we want it to happen, simply because we do not see the whole picture like our Lord.
We in our humanity, with our little minds, cannot see the whole picture as our Lord sees it and because He knows what is best for us, even if it sometimes seems to us that He is not in control, He will always answer us according to His will – because His will is best for us:
1 JOHN 5:14-15
14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
• If we ask something of Him and He does not answer immediately, well then according to His will it is not yet the right time
• If we ask something of Him and we do not get it according to what we asked. Well then it is because as we want it, is not the best for us.
• Also remember, that even if it seems to me that our Lord does not answer me, then I know that it is of course also an answer and the answer is that at present it is not the best for me to receive what I ask.
Finally, just the following:
Remember –
HEB 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Then the author of the book of Hebrews goes on to give some examples of what faith looks like and I just share the first one with you and remember, that what this man did – he was far from the sea or any mass of water when he was building:
HEB 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
When I pray in faith: “Let Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” and because I pray it in faith – only the very best in my life will happen concerning my eternal life – because I know:
ISA 55:8-9
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.Therefore, we look at our God's answer in whatever way He answers and we are content with peace in our hearts.
Greetings,
Sakkie