Jesus's Teaching on Prayer, Part 5
Your Will be Done.
Matthew 6v10b
19th September 2025
This is the fifth in our series of studies of Matthew 6v5-15, in which Jesus teaches us about prayer. We've studied the first two petitions of the Lord's Prayer, in which we pray for God's name and for God's kingdom, and now we turn to the third petition:
Matthew 6v10b
"Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
This a difficult and costly prayer. We're not asking God to do what we want; we're asking Him to do what He wants. As Arthur Wallis once said "I have no problem with the will of God so long as it does not conflict with my own". Sometimes it does.
This third petition is a prayer of submission. When we pray "Your will be done" we're agreeing that God should overrule what we want whenever He wants something else. We're submitting our wills to God's will. It's such a costly prayer that we must be careful not to let the Lord's Prayer become just a ritual, because then we could skip over this petition as if it were an easy thing. This petition, when we realise what it's saying, drives us to our knees, acknowledging that the Lord is God, and we're not, that He is wiser and more loving than we can imagine, that His plan is perfect, and ours isn't.
The first three petitions in this prayer are about God, not about us. This is, of course, only proper. He is much more important than we are. He deserves much more than we do. Our attitude to God, the genuineness of our desire to put Him first, our acceprtance that He is above us, can be clearly seen by our emotional response if we expand the start of the prayer to include the words "and not mine" thus:
"Hallowed by your name, not mine.
Your kingdom come, not mine.
Your will be done, not mine."
Of course I want my name to be respected, but God's name is so much more important. Of course I want some power, or at least influence, on earth, but God's kingdom is so much more important. And I'm in some conflict because of course I want God's will to be done, but I also want my will to be done.
Whatever our situation, we always want something. At least, I do. But we can and should pray something like, "Father God, if I want this, but you don't want me to have it, then don't let me have it."
Pray "Your will be done" about all the major decisions of your life: what house will you buy? what job will you do? when will you retire? all sorts of decisions. Say, "God, I want you to decide. I don't want to decide for myself. Your will be done." Welcome God's rule. Can you find it in your heart to want to obey God on earth just as much as you will in heaven?
This prayer is about more than our own obedience to God. It's about the whole earth. Let's also pray prayers like "Your will be done in the houses of Parliament. Your will be done in Israel and Gaza. Your will be done in Ukraine. Your will be done in our health service. Your will be done in our education service. Your will be done. Stop men coming up with stupid ideas. Let us get back to your holy word and do things Your way. May bad law be repealed. May godly law be enacted. May society be filled with the love, peace, grace, gentleness, kindness, selflessness of Christ, not with the arrogance and selfishness of man. Your will be done, not our will."
And in some churches people will preach what they think, not what the Bible says. God forgive them. His will be done! His word be taught! On earth as it is in heaven. In heaven, God's will is done perfectly, absolutely perfectly. His word is believed perfectly and obeyed perfectly. I can't even imagine perfection but in heaven everything is perfectly in accordance with God's will. What a prayer this is that Jesus teaches us to pray, that one day on earth God's will will be done perfectly. These things come gradually. As we considered last time, the yeast is being worked through the dough but it takes time, the mustard seed is growing but it grows slowly.
Increasingly, may God's will be done in your life, in mine, and across the world.