The Lord’s Prayer: Your will be done (written on our hearts).

Class Outline:

Tuesday December 20, 2022

 

MAT 6:9-13

“Pray, then, in this way:

'Our Father who is 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.

12 'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 'And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

 

Prayer must be cultivated over time. It is more than words. It is a conversation with God but is still more than a conversation. It is a journey of discovery of God and yourself and others. Prayer at its best is the expression of the total life. Our prayers are only as powerful as our lives, in other words, we pray as we live. Hence, this prayer never gets old, but only richer and more meaningful as we pray it. It deals directly with our lives before God.

 

If there is a disparity between our prayer and our conduct, this prayer confronts us with it, and God beckons us to submit to Him, for this is what He desires, and He works in each life to reveal it.

 

“Your will be done.” This is the final petition in the first section of the prayer, which seeks to glorify God and to live godly lives that glorify Him.

 

Sanctified be Your name, Your kingdom come, and Your will be done are all commandments, which makes them intense requests. They are petitions for the believer who is praying and for others, both in the body of Christ and the world. In fact, our desire for the glory of God will make us excellent witnesses for the gospel. The desire for God’s glory is a greater motivation than saving a sinner. If we seek God’s glory first and foremost, then the condition of the sinner will not matter to us. We will have our eyes on God and not the sinner or his sin.

 

This petition needs no explanation. It is interesting however to see it in the sequence. If we desire to revere the Father as holy, and we long for His kingdom, we will deeply desire to obey His will.

 

“On earth as it is in heaven” would apply to all of the three first petitions.

 

In heaven, the holiness of God is revered, the kingdom of God envelopes everything, and the will of God is done by all.

 

The progression of the first three petitions is natural. We pray that the Father’s name is holy in our own hearts and in the hearts of others, but realize that so much of the world do not revere His name, which leads us to the remembrance that this world is not God’s kingdom (not yet), but under the rule of the kingdom of darkness (2CO 4:4).

 

We pray for His kingdom to come. 2PE 3:12 - we are told to look for it and long for it.

 

2PE 3:12

looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God

 

HEB 11:13-16

All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. 15 And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

 

If the kingdom wasn’t coming to earth in their lifetime, why long for it? If the kingdom isn’t coming before the Rapture of the church, why long for it? What we love and desire rules over the entirety of our thoughts. If we long for God’s kingdom, for the holiness of the Father to be our reality, for His will to be our life, then our thoughts will be filled with the scent and life of heaven.

 

Knowing that it will not be physically placed on the earth until the second coming of Christ, we look for its way and laws in our own hearts. We realize that the King is in us and that we can, and must, submit to His rule. We also realize that the spiritual aspect of the new covenant has been given to us and by the Holy Spirit within us, the ways and the laws of the kingdom of God can in fact be written right on our hearts, meaning that they become a part of the very fabric of the inner man.

 

So, the kingdom of God can be a reality filling our inner selves, which would make our lives, walking through our lives, actually quite heavenly.

 

HEB 10:14-18

For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying,

 

16 "THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM

AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD:

I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART,

AND ON THEIR MIND I WILL WRITE THEM,"

 

He then says,

 

17 "AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS

I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE."

 

18 Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

 

The law of God written on our minds and hearts is an image that means that God’s law becomes a part of our inner selves, our identity and personality. It is more than known, by faith and the Holy Spirit, the truth and the laws of God just as much a part of us as our personal preferences (foods and activities).

 

We cannot obey God’s will unless we are forgiven and cleansed from sin.

 

2PE 1:9

For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.