Part 6 of “Learning to Pray to Our Father”

The only way to prepare for God’s unending reign is to do his will now.

The Christian at prayer encounters sacrifice: not my will first, not any other’s will first, but God’s will first. In the end, there are only two ways: either we say to God, “Thy will be done!” or God says to us, “Thy will be done!”[i] If we choose to separate ourselves from God, he will not force himself on us. But if we choose to live in Christ with God, then we must choose his will.

This is a most dangerous petition. We beg the Lord to give us the grace to sacrifice our own independent will so as to accept his will. This is a petition that does not come easily to us, but Jesus places it right in the heart of the prayer he gives us.

What Jesus commands, he first does. To his disciples he says,

“My food is to do the will of him who sent me” (John 4:34).

To the devil, who tempts him to satisfy his own hunger, he says,

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4; see Luke 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3).

Then, in the Garden of Gethsemane, when tempted to preserve his own life, Jesus says,

“Father, . . . not my will but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).

Each day and through all our days, the will of God is the true sustenance of disciples, for the Father’s will sustains and motivates Christ himself. Christ is forming us into his own likeness. We are to become what he is.

The humility to ask for and wait for the Father’s will to be given: this is the painful predicament in which the Lord’s Prayer places us as disciples. Before seeking bread or any other created thing, we are to wait upon God’s word. All other plans yield at this petition.

The one who prays thus puts himself in the position of having to hear and obey.

[i] C. S. Lewis presents this means of separation in The Great Divorce (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2000), see 71.

Practice praying: I invite and challenge you to pray the Lord’s Prayer each day this week. In fact, pray it twice each day. Pray it once, then spend several minutes pondering the significance of the words “Thy Will Be Done.” In what way or in what area of your life is it hardest to give the Lord’s will priority? What do you hesitate to place before the Lord? Take a few minutes to write your thoughts in a prayer journal. Then pray the Lord’s prayer again.

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Find more: This series draws on sections of my book Into the Heart of the Father: Learning from and Giving Yourself through Christ in Prayer. I am grateful to my publisher, Word Among Us Press, for allowing me to share these sections with you here. If you are interested, I hope you will check out the book – I think you’ll like it.

Study and pray with others: I have also designed a reading, prayer, and discussion guide for groups that would like to read the book and learn how to pray better together. This is ideal for parishes, schools, and families.