For us as adults this is a big issue with which most of us struggle at one time or other in our lives. Of course most of the time things that happen are okay and we ‘go with the flow’, but there are a number of other times maybe disappointments over how a career has progressed (or not as the case may be); or a serious illness in the family circle; or a marital breakdown or the infidelity of a spouse or the death of a child or a whole series of possible things that can arise which can give us major problems to address.
Some people appear to rise above their problems and grow stronger in their faith as a result –others often with what appears on the outside to be lesser challenges can falter and fail and backslide or at least lose their passion for the Lord for a time. I doubt if there is anyone reading these words that has not had at least one situation in life in which you have struggled to reconcile events in life with your confidence in the providential care of God?
We may never have shared the issues with anyone apart from the Lord, but they are there in the background of our lives. Yet in all life’s ups and downs Jesus invites us as His followers to come to our Father in prayer and to say Your will be done in earth as it is in heaven with complete sincerity and trust in His provision for our needs and His guidance for our lives.
Jesus has set the context in which we utter these words. He has first reminded us of the nature of the person to whom we come –Our Father in heaven. He has then shared with us the passion of His heart, and He desires it to be ours as well, that at the top of our list of practical concerns in life is the honouring of His name hallowed by Your name. Following on from His top priority Jesus sought to enlarge the vision of His followers to see not only their own concerns and those of others around them but to pray from a much bigger perspective in our prayers by sensing what God is doing in the world and seeking to follow Him.
To pray Your kingdom come…on earth as it is in heaven is to recognise that we are part of something so much greater than we could ever imagine; that our small contribution may be much more significant in eternal terms than we had ever realised; As ambassadors for the King of Kings we have a part to play in the realisation of what human beings and the rest of this world were created for! This is the context in which we are called to pray Your will be done (in my life as in the rest of this world) on earth as it is in heaven.
However, let us remember and never forget:
1. The power of prayer Prayer does change things. The Bible is full of extraordinary answers to prayer. It is good to remind ourselves of that fact. In Genesis 24, for example there is the account of Eliezer, the chief servant of Abraham, being given the responsibility of finding a wife for his master’s son Isaac. His brief is very specific. The young lady in question must not be from the Canaanite people who live in that country, instead he is required to go to Syria to find Abraham’s relatives and from that family network choose a bride for Isaac.
He has never met the family before and although he may have been given some names of people to ask for he only knows that they live in the vicinity of the town of Aram Naharaim in north-west Mesopotamia. Eliezer’s prayer was simple, and it is recorded in Genesis 24:42-52. In summary, he said: God bring the woman who will marry Isaac to meet me at the spring of water on the edge of this town. Let me know she is the one because she offers not only to get me a refreshing drink of water but will offer to attend to the needs of my camels as well! In exceptional circumstances there can be extraordinary supernatural intervention. This is to remind us that nothing is impossible with God. Do you need to receive that encouragement today?
It is not an alternative to using all appropriate means at our disposal to attempt to reduce the difficulties we face. Some medical and social care staff in our hospitals and residential care homes at the present time may be praying for divine protection as they carry out their duties, for example, but this would be in addition to, not instead of, using the best personal protective equipment available as well. In that scenario, the rest of us will be praying that they do indeed get the best logistical support possible in such a critical time as this.
However, there is another side to the picture:
2. The Paradox in Prayer Why do we need to pray? If God is sovereign and His will is done in the world, where do our prayers fit in to all this? If prayer isn’t trying to ‘make’ God change His mind, like a little child trying to wear down a parent! What exactly are we doing? There are many paradoxes in the Christian life and in the Scriptures. For example, God is sovereign yet we are responsible. Jesus is human, but equally divine. God is one yet also in three persons, Father Son and Holy Spirit. The biblical authors were responsible for their books yet equally God the Holy Spirit inspired them to convey God’s truth without error.
However, just as an earthly judge allows representations re mitigating circumstances prior to passing sentence on a guilty defendant, so our heavenly Father takes into account the prayers of His people when He is taking action on the earth. Genesis 18:16-33 records the extraordinary account of God inviting Abraham to offer prayer with respect to the forthcoming judgement on Sodom and Gomorrah. Genesis 18:17: Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? The remainder of the chapter records the interchanges of Abraham in prayer with God. Yes, you did read those words correctly, that your prayers might be taken into account by God to the degree that they have a bearing on the outcome of that difficult problem. Now that is incredible!
But we cannot presume that we know exactly what God’s will is with respect to things we pray for. We pray because Almighty God has invited us to do so and have to trust Him with respect to the outcome in response to our petitions to Him. However, never forget that it is not just great Christian men and women whose prayers are heard. Every believer has the right to bring our petitions to Him, although we cannot assume a particular outcome on the vast majority of occasions, yet in our best moments what we want is that: Your will [is] done on earth as it is in heaven.
Our song for reflection today is: ‘Behold our God’
Brian Talbot