For several years, I served at a Methodist church with a traditional, liturgical service.
A constant feature of most Sunday services was a congregational recitation of The Lord’s Prayer. Even visitors who rarely darkened the doors of a church could not only recite it but had strong feelings about the preferred wording that should be used. It is one of the few times when both young and old often agree that the old King James Version just sounds right.
Most Americans are familiar with some variation of The Lord’s Prayer. It can be found in Matthew 5:9-13. In the King’s English, it reads, “Our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in Earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”
We know the words of this prayer by heart, but do we really understand what they mean? It’s often said that familiarity breeds contempt. I think it is more accurate to say that familiarity breeds indifference. We have a tendency to overlook that which we don’t have to intentionally consider.
Over the last several weeks, the words of The Lord’s Prayer have been reverberating in my heart and mind. I have been particularly confronted by one line of this prayer. I have been forced to consider whether or not I really mean what I say when I say these words. The line is “Thy will be done…”
Think about what these words really mean for a moment. God’s will is his plan to bring about his purposes in this world and in our lives. If we really mean these words when we say/pray them, then we are making a very big statement. We are putting the power to decide into God’s hands. We are declaring that whatever God desires to happen in our lives, the lives of those we love and the world around us is what we want, as well. If we are truly asking for God’s will to be done, it means the surrender of our own wills, the abdication of our personal priorities and purposes.
In the very next chapter, Jesus goes on to say we can’t serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). We can’t be driven by two wills. Attempting to serve God’s will and our own will only breed bitterness toward whatever/whoever is distracting us from that which we really desire.
From the time when Adam and Eve took that first self-serving bite of the forbidden fruit in the garden, choosing their own will over God’s, humanity has been selfishly pursuing what we desire above all else. Sure, we will do what God wants when his will lines up with our own, but when there’s a conflict of interests, things get messy. When we prioritize own will over God’s, we invalidate the declaration of The Lord’s Prayerin our lives and reveal who is the true master of our lives.
We must ask the question in our own lives both early and often: Do we mean what we say when we recite “Thy will be done?” Are we really willing to put our desires and preferences to the side in favor of God’s? Are we really willing to put the choice for every circumstance of our lives into his hands?
Yes, God is sovereign. God is in the position of authority over all of creation, but in his grace and love, he has given us the ability to make choices. He has given us the ability to stray from his will into our own. The question each of us has to answer is who’s will we will choose. My hope is that daily we will pray “Thy will be done” and mean it.
The Rev. Jeremy Myers is the lead pastor of First Baptist Church in Seymour. Read his blog at jeremysmyers.com.