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Living the Lord's Prayer>
Week 8 - Living the Lord’s Prayer by David Timms
March 27, 2011
Living the Lord’s Prayer by David Timms
Week Seven:
Chapter 6 (Summary): Your Will Be Done ON Earth As It Is In Heaven….Transforming Willfulness to Willingness
Scripture: John 14:1, James 4:13-16, 1Corinthains 15:31, Romans 8:28
In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10). Notice there is no exception. I don’t get to submit to God’s will but still have my way when it comes to my marriage, my career, my money, my future. We are unwilling to surrender everything to the Father, but can you imagine the transformation in our lives if we did. If the words “Your will be done” were spoken from the heart our lives would never be the same.
But you should be warned that the journey from “my will” to “your will” is not an easy one. Throughout our lives we maintain an attitude of willfulness. It shows itself in so many ways….anger, manipulation, competitiveness. The two year old in us is still alive and well as we set about to get our way and demand my will be done. The methods may be different as we get older but the desire is the same.
For so long we have been saying to the world, “What I want matters”. After all God made us with a will and gave us the capacity to make choices. In this prayer Jesus was not crushing the disciple’s ability to make choices, but teaching them to submit to the Father’s will and to have trust and faith that God’s will is the best for us. Can faith be faith without submitting to God’s will? Jesus wants us to readily choose the will of the Father. Jesus calls us to trust Him.
Even when we pray “your will be done” we secretly want clarity. Will this job bring me happiness; if I marry will it work out; is this the right move for my family? We want to know what the future will bring. But in John 14:1 Jesus tells us don’t be stressed about what lies ahead trust God and trust me. We are to walk by faith not by sight. This prayer challenges us to let the Father do the steering. If God is your co-pilot then you need to switch seats.
As we surrender our need for clarity we also need to learn to discard our fantasies. We don’t live in a perfect world. There is no perfect marriage, no perfect children, no perfect job, not even a perfect church. Some fantasies seem harmless. How could it be wrong to wish for that perfect church? Some of us have ideals that no living person or faith community could possibly reach. To wish for this kind of perfection can lead to criticism, discontent and frustration. It is then that our fantasies do more harm than good. That is not to say that we should not have visions or visionary leaders. But there is a difference between God’s vision and what we want. We fanaticize about how things could be all the time missing the grace of God in what He has given us right now. Many of us are so focused on the ever changing future that we fail to experience God right now.
As we affirm our desire for God’s purpose we must confront our desire to make big plans for our own lives. We have been taught that we need goals and plans to be happy. And we are
good at setting goals……. spiritual goals, educational goals, career goals, financial goals and on and on and on. We live in a performance-driven, power-hungry, action oriented society. We glamorize the go-getters and the movers and shakers, even in the church. Such a life style and attitude poses a serious threat to our spiritual formation. This is not what God desires. We have to loosen our grip and let God make the initiative to love us and work through us. It is not wrong to make plans, but His will is for this very moment. Living right now and in His will frees us from the guilt of the past and the fear of the future. When the plans of tomorrow preoccupy our focus we become unsettled and dissatisfied. Our deepest satisfaction comes not from second guessing the future but from living fully in the moment of this day for that is all that we are guaranteed.
The journey from our will be done to God’s will be done requires courage. As humans we are ever changing. Ultimately whatever desire drives us the hardest shapes us the most at that time. What is driving your life right now? Is it marriage, family, success or security? You might say we become what we desire for that controls how we spend our time and energy. The challenge is to collect and refine those desires into a desire for God, a passion for God. Our passion is not defined by clanging cymbals and loud praise but in a willingness to do anything to know him more.
Passion for God demonstrates the ultimate suppression of our own desires that we might fulfill His desires. The apostle Paul wrote “I die daily”. This was not a sign of inactivity or apathy, but rather Paul’s daily surrender of his own ambition, drive, goals, desires and visions to Christ. Like Paul we want to seize control. But we have to realize that the largest parts of our lives are not under our control, that we are not self-sufficient. May our passion for God produce increasing submission to Him so that he may do to us, through us and with us whatever He wishes. As we pray “Your will be done” may we understand that the phrase is not about who gets their way, us or God, but it is about what we become. Ultimately our life is not what we make of it but what He makes of it.
Questions:
1. How do adults “throw tantrums: or manipulate things to get their own way?
2. What kind of changes might the Lord make in our lives if we thoroughly surrendered our own agenda to His?
3. What would it take for us to fully surrender ourselves to Him?
4. If you surrendered to God’s will would you do so in order to make the best decisions or in order to press closer to Him?
5. How does God reveal His will?
6. Do you thing that our fantasies – wanting the perfect marriage, children church, etc – get in the way of us seeing God’s hand at work in the small realities of our life?
7. How can we better see the hand of God in all the small events of our lives (including our meeting for this study)?
Boiling Springs United Methodist Church
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