Dear Discipleship-first Friends,
God’s Will… Period.
I’m sure you’re familiar with the Lord’s Prayer.
I wonder if we get too familiar with the Lord’s Prayer.
We know the words. We know them so well that if someone started praying them out loud in a church service, like a kid saying the Pledge of Allegiance, we would jump right in.
We would speak up, and say all the words correctly, without ever thinking about them. (Well, we’d say all the words right up until everyone chanted “forgive us our…,” at which point we’d panic, Is it going to be sins, debts, or trespasses?! Which is it? What do I say?).
In this prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray, “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Have you thought about what that means?
We should, because it is a beautiful, dangerous, life-altering prayer.
Why?
Because it’s praying for God’s dream instead of our own.
When you pray that prayer…
- You’re asking God to make His dream your dream.
- You’re asking for God’s will to become the main attraction in your life.
- You’re asking for God’s kingdom to descend from heaven and take up residence on earth and you’re asking God to do that through you.
- You’re asking God to use your life so that the way things look in heaven will increasingly become the way things look down here.
You may be thinking… Wait. That’s what I’ve been praying for all these times? Are you sure? I mean, I thought those lines in the prayer meant… well, I guess I’ve never really thought about what they mean, but I didn’t know they meant that. And I didn’t know I was committing myself to anything.
It’s a beautiful, dangerous, life-altering prayer, but I’m not sure how many of us actually pray it. I mean really pray it. I know for too many years, I didn’t. I may have said it with my lips, but my heart was saying something very different.
If Someone Listened In …
Can we be honest about our prayers?
If someone listened in on our prayers and looked into our hearts, I’m afraid they’d hear something more like:
God, may MY kingdom come.
May MY will be done.
No one wants to admit that. No Christian store is going to start selling bumper stickers, “I pray for what I want, and I’m proud of it!” It’d be embarrassing to confess, but we’re mostly about our desires. I want what I want. I pray every day that my dreams will come true.
What if we’re dreaming the wrong dreams and praying the wrong prayers?
What if praying for your will to be done and for your own dreams makes us self-centered and our lives small?
What if God has something so much more for you but you’re missing it because you’re not praying the prayer Jesus taught you, the prayer for God’s dream?
God’s Will for My Life
One of the questions Christians ask most is, “God, what is your will for my life?”
I know I have prayed that prayer hundreds of times throughout my life. I had a mentor several years ago challenge me — “Josh, you’re asking the wrong question…”
It’s the wrong question because, even though it starts with God, the focus is still on me. God, I want to know what you have for me.
What if, instead, we cut off the last three words and asked, “God, what is your will?” Period.
We would probably need to love God a lot and really appreciate his grace to ask it, but I think that would be a great prayer.
What might it sound like?
God, I want what you want. Show me your heart. Your kingdom come Lord. Your will be done God. I want your dreams to come true more than I want my dreams to come true. I want your dreams to be my dreams! What do you long for God? Make it be what I long for. God, what’s your will? That’s all I want. I trust you and I want your will, no matter what it is.
If we pray, “God, what is your will?” we’d be asking God what He dreams about, what breaks his heart, what he longs to see happen in the world.
What if we pray that and love God so much that, whatever the answer is, we spend our lives pursuing it? It would mean I no longer want what I want, but what He wants, not my dream, but His dream, not the little plan for my life, but God’s big purpose for the world.
Can you imagine what would happen if every Christian prayed that and loved God enough to do whatever He asked? That may just be the beginning of His Kingdom truly coming… and for everything to change…
For King Jesus,