Anchor My Faith

Your Will Be Done

Scripture: Matthew 6:9-11, 13; Luke 11:2, 4

In the previous lesson we looked at the second petition of the Lord’s prayer which is “Your kingdom come.” In this lesson we will cover the third petition which speaks of God’s will.

^{Lk 11:2} “And he said to them, “When you pray, say: ^{Mt 6:9} 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 this day our daily bread, ^{Lk 11:4} and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. ^{Mt 6:13} And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”’

Our focus will be on “your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” By God’s will we mean God’s “revealed will” for “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law”

(Deuteronomy 29:29 ESV). These things that are revealed in the Bible belong to us and are general principles of life, but we as believers must use wisdom to discern how to apply those principles to real issues of life. There are certain sections of the Bible that are especially good in this application, such as the book of Proverbs. The wisdom that is spoken of there may be defined as “the skill of godly living” which requires one to thoughtfully discern, apply and practice in order to live in a way that pleases God. We are to ⁸ “Walk as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), ¹⁰ and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8 – 10 ESV).

In a letter Paul wrote to Timothy, he said to him, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 ESV). We are to study the word of truth and learn it and discern how to live it out through the life we live.

After years of writing bible studies, I have gradually come to understand the relationship of the word of truth to me in terms of software to a computer. A computer is just an orderly collection of things that by itself is useless until an operating system is installed; like installing Windows 10 in a PC. To make the PC more productive application software is installed and soon one has a very useful system that can process data to produce desired and useful results.

When constructing a PC, it is given sufficient ability to allow the installation of an operating system which provides the ability to install application software. When we are born physically, we are capable of doing things, but we are not capable of producing the fruit of good works. Bearing fruit requires that we abide in Jesus Christ (John 15:4 – 5), but to abide in him requires the gift of salvation (Ephesians 2:8 – 10) and with that gift comes the Holy Spirit to dwell within us (1 Corinthians 3:16). We might consider our salvation the installation of the software program and the Holy Spirit its power to apply it to my life.  

Through the process of sanctification, the application program continues to be upgraded as I am being conformed into the image of God’s Son and others see his life being lived out through me (Galatians 2:20). The more he lives his life through me the closer I come to living out God’s will in my life and when the day comes when I pass through death to heaven, then his word in me will be lived out perfectly.

Conclusion

It is God’s will that the life we will live out perfectly in heaven will be actively developed in our life here on earth. Are we with fear and trembling working out our salvation, allowing Jesus Christ greater freedom to live his life out through us? Father I pray that day by day we will become more and more like Jesus in how we live; yes, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!