Day 11: Your will be done
We've just begun to dive into the line, "Your kingdom come." If you have The Lord's Prayer memorized, you are likely to follow this up with: "your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Luke doesn't include this addition, but if you already guessed you can find it in the gospel of Matthew, you're right!
We also learned that this line points back to the Old Testament prophecy of God's rescue of His people coming through a kingdom-one more powerful than all others and without end. This message was given by a young man named Daniel, a trusted servant in the palaces of foreign kings, but loyal to his God...who as it turns out, is more powerful than any earthly king. The LORD God of Israel demonstrates his sovereignty over all nations in radical and miraculous ways throughout Daniel's story. Earthly kings are driven to a season of madness living like wild animals, fiery furnaces prove futile, kingdoms are given away to neighbouring nations and lions' mouths are shut. Yahweh, LORD God of Israel, the God of the Old Testament truly is the King over all Kings. And if you know the rest of the story(pardon me while the voice of Paul Harvey rings in my head), He will come to inaugurate his everlasting kingdom in the opening pages of the New Testament, and His will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
It is in response to this King of Kings, we pray "Your kingdom come, your will be done." We pray it because the true nature of our sin is a predisposition to fight for sovereignty over our own little kingdom of one. Not unlike the kings of Babylon and Persia we tend to operate under the assumption that we are "most high." Therefore we pray it as an act of humility, a declaration of our understanding that we are in fact not sovereign. We say "Your will be done..." and imply the qualifier "not mine..."
The posture of this line is one of stepping down from the throne and giving up autonomy and control in order to embrace God's perfect rule. It is the posture of Jesus Himself, who was God and yet "who did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited, instead he emptied himself..."* praying "Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me--nevertheless, not my will but yours, be done..." and then "humbled himself by becoming obedient to death...even to death on a cross."**
Accepting the posture of this line is hard. I won't tell you different. If Jesus prayed it and it made him sweat...how much more ought we squirm when praying honestly these holy words? They threaten our comfort and fly in the face of everything our culture promotes. And let's get real vulnerable for a moment...it's pretty evident that our will might not always line up with his. People die. Relationships remain broken. Loved ones suffer. Bad stuff happens.
Friends, this conversation is bigger than our space here. What we need is my front porch on a quiet morning with two cups of coffee and nothing else on our agenda. Now is when we need to talk about the ways we reduce "God's will" to the minutiae of our daily lives rather than see it as an everlasting kingdom agenda of God's presence returning to His people and his name being glorified in all creation for all time. I wish we had time to stop and talk about how this means that the kingdom can come even in brokenness, pain and suffering.
Some of us don't struggle with this. We can reconcile the suffering in life with the worth of the kingdom, due to an unwavering belief in the sovereignty of God. This is helpful at the thought level, and an orthodox view that I believe is crucial; however, if left unchecked it can also cause us to act as holy martyrs, clinging to the hardship of living for the kingdom, and having no compassion for those who are grieving without hope.
So today, let's remember that the sacrifice of finding the kingdom has always produced the greatest treasure; like a pearl worth selling everything for, and a field in which a fortune is buried.*** When Jesus spoke of those who found the kingdom, he emphasized not what they had to give up but the joy they had in the midst of the sacrifice...because their eyes were focused on the greater prize. In other words, the one who has seen the King of Kings to be ultimately good and beautiful and loving is all in...willing to embrace what some see as difficult as the only pathway to a treasure they know to be greater.
One practical thing I have adopted as a way of praying Your Kingdom come, your will be done, is the discipline of silence and solitude. If you live in today's culture or have small(or any!) children, this is a concept likely foreign to you. Especially after weeks of quarantine right? And these days the world seems to be getting even noisier. In any case, this practice is simply as it sounds; sitting in silence before God as part of your prayer life. This is hard. I'm a talker and a metacognitive, so even if you can get my mouth to be quiet my brain is not. But for me, to stop the words and the thoughts and just sit in the stillness before God-even for a few short minutes-has been the visible way I have reminded my body and mind that I am not sovereign. As the thoughts inevitably come, I push them away and re-focus on sitting humbly and silently before my king. Not my will...his will. Not my words...his words. Not my agenda...only Him.
Let's read and think about Jesus' short and lovely description of the kingdom in Matthew 13:44-46 today. Pay attention to the response of those who find the kingdom. How is their "sacrifice" described? What does this tell you about the value they discovered? How does this text encourage or challenge you as you pray Your will be done?
Then read Psalm 47 today. It's short! Read to add to your understanding of what it means for God to be the King of Kings. Pay attention to how the psalmist describes the King. What is the general mood amongst his subjects?
When you are ready, move into prayer. Use your own words to express the posture and purpose of each line as you have come to know it:
Our Father...
In Heaven...
Hallowed be Your name...
Your kingdom come...
Pray your meaningful observations from Psalm 47 back to the King of Kings. Then ask God to reveal to you the places where you need to pray "Your will be done..." Confess your struggle with stepping off the throne and releasing control in this area. Ask God to let it be a joy to you.
If you like, you can borrow these words from NT Wright to pray, "God, we give up our agenda and we trust you for yours." It's okay to spend time here feeling and confessing the fear and uncertainty those words might elicit. Remember that the King is also your Father, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.
See you tomorrow friend. Grace and Peace to you!
*Philippians 2:6-8
**Luke 22:42
***Matthew 13:44-46
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