Sunday Devotional: Matthew 6:10b

Let your will come to pass, as in heaven [so] also on earth;

The next petition of the Lord’s Prayer is for God’s will to be accomplished (the Greek verb I have translated “come to pass” is ginomai, which means “to be” or “become,” and can include the idea of “doing”) on earth, just as it is in heaven. This appears to go along with the previous petitions, for surely where God’s kingdom is, and where God has total authority, there also His will is done completely and without question.

I think it is right to look at this as completing the prayer for the passing of the current evil age, to be replaced by God’s rule in it’s fullness. The fulfillment of the previous petition–“let your kingdom come”–will be apparent when all creation obeys God’s commands. At that time, the will of God is all anyone will care about, both what it is, and how it can be accomplished. No-one will even think of putting themselves before God, or think of ways they might bend God’s will to accommodate their own.

And here I think we touch on the present-day significance of this petition. Because accomplishing God’s will is not just something we look forward to; for the Christian, it should be his or her everyday concern. Just as we pray for the will of God to take charge on the earth at that end time, we also pray for God’s to impose His sovereign will now, in our own lives, and in the lives of those around us. We should take Jesus’s Gethsemane cry of “Not my will by Yours” as our own, asking God that He make His will the only will I care about, here right now on earth in my life, just as it is in heaven for all eternity.

One might ask: if God is sovereign, and the Lord of all creation, then isn’t His will always done anyway? The answer to that is yes, God’s will is done. But we need to recognize that there are two types of will: God’s revealed will, and His sovereign or “secret” will. We are living in a day when God’s commands are violated, and His laws are mocked. God’s revealed will says that man should not live this way, that He should obey God’s commands, because this is both the duty of man, and it is what pleases God. However, according to God’s secret will, He is sovereign over man’s disobedience. We don’t know what God’s intention is in the disobedience of man to His revealed will, but we trust that it will all work together in His plan of redemption. When we pray “let your will be done,” I believe we are praying both that God would cause men to turn from their sin and adhere to God’s revealed will, and that God would hasten the day when He will bring to completion His eternal plan. On that day, His plans and desires for His people will come to pass in their fullness, and His sovereign rule over all the universe will be unrestrained.

And may it be in our own hearts first. Have a great week!