Your will be done
In the third petition of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches, “Your will be done on earth as in heaven.” Doesn’t that sound backward? We come to God in prayer to tell him what we want, and then Jesus says that a better way is to come to God in prayer by first asking him what he wants. That is wise counsel! We can’t pray for something good for us until we are tuned into God’s goodness. We won’t know what the wise thing is to pray for until we are first tuned in to God’s wisdom.
Pastor Aaron Goetzinger explains the symbol he created for the third petition of the Lord’s Prayer:
We see that God’s will is that his Son overcome sin, death, and the devil, the gospel message of his Son go forth and that all who believe are raised at the last day. As Jesus said, “My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life.” Only through the Son is all evil overcome.
This seal features the right hand of God extended from heaven. Very often in the Old Testament God speaks of extending his hand to oppose the enemies of Israel (cf. Ex 3:20). In a sense, the enemies of Israel are representative of all evil. God’s will is always to overcome every evil plan of the devil, the world, and our own sinful nature.
Jesus teaches us exactly what it means to pray that God’s will be done. On the night before he died, Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane. The weight of the world’s sins weighed heavily upon him. He prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done” (Matthew 26:42).
May God’s will be done in you as you continue to pray for God’s will to be done here on earth as in heaven.