W K Tweedie
Matthew 6:10. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
In this petition we have a model set up, and a prayer for power to follow that model. The model is the mind and will of the holy God as it rules unchallenged in heaven; and the prayer is that earth may become as heaven – that is, a prayer for the utter extinction of sin, and the universal prevalence of holiness; for “the will of God” is only another name for the complete observance of all the commandments.
Now (1) consider the model, that we may learn what the copy should be: How is the will of God done in heaven?
It is done universally. Not one among the ranks of the sinless has a single thought or a single desire at variance with the mind of Jehovah. The angels and archangels, with all the host of heaven, have no will but His. If trial and tears could enter among them, all would be submitted to, because He had sent it. It is as if one heart and soul animated the whole. Their very nature would be outraged if there was one among them all who dissented. Having but one God and King, they have but one law; and heaven would cease to be heaven if violence was done to the universal concord that is there.
God’s will is done continually. Never for the twinkling of an eye does a thought wander from the great centre of all blessedness; but as the heart in living men is continually beating, so the continual and unbroken desire of all heaven is that God may be all and in all.
All this is done cheerfully. The city of God does not contain a single inhabitant that does not delight to do His will. It is their blessedness because it is His pleasure; and whether their commission is to live in the uncreated light of God’s countenance, or for an angel to hasten on an errand of mercy to some suffering child of God, their obedience is equally prompt and joyous. They are “fervent in spirit, serving the Lord”. Nothing has occurred to separate their minds from Jehovah. His will is therefore theirs, His law and pleasure theirs; so that though men on earth find it difficult, even when they soar highest, to comprehend what heaven will be, this may be regarded as a description of its blessedness: All that enter there do God’s will universally, continually and cheerfully.
Now (2) we are taught by the Lord Jesus to pray that the earth may become blessed again by the prevalence of such a spirit here. With the purpose of restoring man’s happiness, and lifting him from the wretchedness into
1Taken with editing from The Christian’s Daily Companion.
which his revolt from God has sunk him, the Shepherd of Israel would guide us back to the spot from which we fell. And what is so reasonable as that God’s will should be to give a law to His intelligent creatures? What so reasonable as that God, who is love, should be allowed to regulate our movements and apportion our lot?
Yet how hard is the task for proud, fallen man to take God’s will for his! In the beginning, the tempter succeeded in alluring us from God, by holding out the prospect that we should be as gods unto ourselves; and as that was the first lure held out to man, it still too fatally succeeds in keeping him far from God. He either obstinately opposes, or rebelliously murmurs against, the Almighty’s purposes. And if the holiest child of God would strictly watch the movements of his mind for a single day, he would discover how prone his heart is to feel – whatever his lips may express – like those who say, Who is the Lord, that He should be God over us? He is surprised and disappointed and murmurs when the Most High does not act according to the desires, or purposes, or pleasures of His sinful creature.
Hence the difficulty of cordially praying, “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven”. It is reasonable for afflicted man to have God’s will concerning him accomplished, and it would be full of blessedness. Yet so wayward is he that multitudes struggle against that will until the hour they die. Even the child of God finds it the most arduous of tasks to bring his mind into conformity with Jehovah’s. Man must be made a new creature in Christ before that can be accomplished.
While all is harmony in heaven, all is discord on earth. While the Son of God made it His meat and drink to do His Father’s will, man as perversely exalts his own will above his God’s, until he is renewed in the spirit of his mind. In such a case, what should be his alternative? He should pray to God to be made willing in the day of His power, to be taught by the Spirit of all grace to “be still, and know that [God is] God”, and submit with holy acquiescence in all that the Lord is pleased to send. To resist Him is to be wretched; to take His will for ours is to be blessed, for “good is the will of the Lord”. And the man that truly loves his soul will pray for daily grace – as he prays for his daily bread – to bring down every high imagination, and submit the whole soul to what God gives, exclaiming, “Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints”.
But is there not a length and breadth of meaning in this petition which is often overlooked? We pray in words that the will of God may be done on earth. Now it may be His will to take away my best-loved enjoyment. It may be His sovereign pleasure to lay me on a sickbed, which shall become my deathbed. The child of my affections may be marked for death by Him whose
doings admit of no challenge. It may be His pleasure to make my tears flow so fast that a fellow mortal cannot dry them. All that may be the will of my covenant God; I therefore pray for all that, as often as I say, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is done in heaven”. And yet how much I am surprised and startled when God answers my prayer and does according to His will! How I mourn and often murmur because He has been pleased to do according to His own holy mind! I would rather bring down His will to mine than lift mine up to His. In such a case, the inmost soul must feel the need of constraining grace to bring the mind into conformity with God’s.
And now my soul, is it thus with you? It is the nature of light to spread and gladden. It is the nature of rivers to run to the sea. As it is the nature of animals to breathe, so it is the desire, the prayer and the effort of a regenerated soul to do the will of its God. My soul, is it so with you? Is it your practice in sorrow to imitate Him who said, in His hour of agony, “Not My will, but Thine, be done”? To acquiesce in God’s holy will is heaven commenced; it is the proof of our kinship to Christ; for “whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother”. And greatly blessed are the people who are thus taught by God.