(Mt 10:6b) Your will be one on earth as it is in heaven.
Our prayer is to desire that God’s will
be done on earth as it is in heaven. How is the will of God done in heaven? It
is done immediately and completely. Our third petition in this model prayer
should be, “Your will be done on earth, immediately and completely, as it is in
heaven.”
But to pray for that to happen it has to happen in us; otherwise, this prayer
would be meaningless. Planet earth is the only place in the Universe where the
will of God is not done spontaneously and fully all the time. Such failure
reveals our sinfulness and challenges our love for Jesus. “If you really love
me, you will keep the commandments I have given you” (Jn 14:15, Phillips).
One such command is to do His will immediately and completely as it is in
heaven. When Jesus was in the Garden He prayed, “Father, if it is Your will
(italics added), take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will,
but Yours, be done” (Lk 22:42, italics added).
Your will over my will is all about
submission to the authority of the Father. Can you imagine running brashly to
the throne of grace with a sense of entitlement by asking God to do this and
that for us when we are not even willing to do the will of the Father, much
less immediately and completely! This is not submission but selfishness and
disrespecting the majesty of His holiness.
Often Paul would refer to himself as a “bondservant of Jesus Christ.” It
literally means a slave (Gk, doulos) of Jesus Christ. I love the
description of a slave of Christ by one of my professors, now gone on to be
with the Lord, in New Testament Studies, Dr. Bruce Lackey, “The will of the
slave is lost in the will of the master.” The rich and fuller meaning of doulos
was lost by translating it as servant or bondservant rather than “slave” due to political correctness probably.
Until we recognize and accept our slavery in Christ, we will never be truly
free from the entanglements of the world that hinder or prevent God’s will from
being foremost in our lives. We become a slave to things rather than a slave to
the Savior. Everything, in the absolute sense of the word, pertaining to our
life, family, and possessions, does not belong to us. Death will always back up that
statement.
Jim Elliot, who died in 1956 by trying
to reach a primitive people in Ecuador for Christ, said it best,
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot
lose.”
The Master’s will is everything to a slave. Until we get this concept forever
embedded in our minds that we are slaves of Christ, it's doubtful we will ever
do God’s will immediately or completely.
Sure, we are sons of God, joint-heirs with Christ, and we can cry out “Abba,
Father” as we run boldly unto the throne of grace. But make no mistake about
this relationship; we will always belong to Christ because He paid our sin debt
out of the slave market of sin at the cross. All that we have is because of
Him; all that we have belongs to Him. How could we do no less than respond to
Papa’s will immediately and completely?
“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the
will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work” (Jn 4:34). If our Master did
the will of the Father in heaven on earth this way, as slaves of Christ, we,
too, should be like our Lord! Is our will lost in the will of the Master? Can
we honestly say, “My food is to do the will of God immediately and
completely?” <><
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