Read
1“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven…
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. 14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. – Matthew 6:1,& 5-14, The Lord’s Prayer (NIV)
At our last Celebration meeting, Julia suggested that in the run-up to Easter, we all spend time listening to God, and then take some extra time to reflect upon what we felt God is saying to us. Julia also read out the Lord’s Prayer, and the words from verse 10 leapt out at me; ‘Your Will Be Done’. I’ve been reflecting upon that verse since then, looking at what God might be saying specifically through it. Since then, I’ve found this passage popping up everywhere, from TV to casual conversations.
This famous passage from Matthew is, at its most basic, Jesus teaching us how to pray. I’ve left the bit in about “babbling like pagans…” because I like to visualise people’s faces when Jesus said that!
The Lord’s Prayer starts with Jesus saying “Our Father in heaven … Hallowed be Thy name!” – an instruction that we should start our prayers by praising God, and reminding ourselves who it is that we worship. This is important because it helps us align with God – a theme we will return to later.
But wait..? What did Jesus say then? ‘Your kingdom come, Your will be done..?’
How do we use those words when we pray, and what do we mean by them? Do we perhaps use them to hide our uncertainty so that we have a way out if the prayer ‘doesn’t work’? Or maybe we’re using these words as a sort of spiritual ‘get out of jail free’ card so we don’t have to take the consequences of our prayers too seriously? Or maybe we’re expressing our relationship with God, where His will and ours have become so intertwined that we can’t actually do anything other than seek His will. Is that true for me?
At its simplest, that is what this should be: Us walking alongside God, and living according to His power that is at work within us [Eph. 3:20-21]; aligning our lives with His, and seeking His direction. Inevitably, a close relationship like that will result in us asking God to do what He already desires in our lives, bringing together and uniting the purposes of heaven and earth. When God’s will is done on Earth, as it is in heaven, shouldn’t we believe that that is the best possible outcome for us?
Before we all enthusiastically shout out “Amen!”, I have one last question: We often approach prayer with an idea of the outcome we want. There’s nothing wrong with that, and of course, we want to see healing, of course, we want to see peace. But I imagine that this was also the prayer of many who were martyred for their faith. Still up for that ‘Amen’? We also know that Jesus himself, in the Garden of Gethsemane, pleaded for God to intervene in his destiny, but Jesus then finished the lesson he had started when he taught the disciples how to pray, by saying “Your will be done” [Matt. 26:29].
Sorry if I’ve unsettled you with that last one, but it’s an intrinsic part of the paradox of this verse and I don’t feel we can ignore it.
When you’ve had a think about this, have a go at this exercise. We all have to breathe, so as you breathe in, breathe in the words “Your Kingdom come”. As we breathe out, breathe out the words “Your Will be done”. Go on, do it again…
If you’d like some music to focus on while you do this, how about listening to this while you do this?
If there is anything you’d like to add to the conversation, please do! We’d love you to engage in this way, and there is room below for you to add your thoughts. Thanks, John & Fran.
