The Third Petition of the Lord’s Prayer

Do you like getting your way?

“Your will be done.”

Those words can be easy to pray when God’s will seems to match ours.

It’s much harder when it doesn’t.

We make plans. We have hopes for our families, our careers, our health, and our futures. We pray for things we genuinely believe would be good.

Then sometimes God has something different in mind.

Jesus knows what that is like.

On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. He knew what was coming, the suffering, humiliation, and death He was about to endure. So He prayed that, if possible, the cup of suffering would pass from Him.

Yet He also prayed,

“Not as I will, but as You will.”

That wasn’t resignation. It was trust.

Jesus entrusted Himself completely to His Father, knowing that His Father’s will was good even when the path ahead involved tremendous suffering.

And because Jesus submitted to His Father’s will, He went to the cross for us.

That helps us understand what we are praying in the Third Petition.

Interestingly, Luther doesn’t focus primarily on discovering God’s plan for our individual lives. We sometimes think of “God’s will” as a hidden blueprint we need to figure out:

• Which job should I take?
• Where should I live?
• Whom should I marry?

Those questions are important, but that’s not the main concern of this petition.

Luther explains that God’s good and gracious will is done when He breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature that would keep us from hallowing His name or prevent His Kingdom from coming.

In other words, there is a battle going on.

The devil wants to pull you away from Christ. The world constantly offers other things to trust and pursue. Your own sinful nature resists God and His Word.

So we pray,

“Your will be done.”

Which means:

• Protect my faith.
• Destroy whatever would separate me from You.
• Keep Your Word among us.
• Strengthen me until I die.

And God does.

Sometimes His will takes us places we would never have chosen or even thought of. Sometimes He allows difficulties we don’t understand. We don’t always get an explanation.

But we do know the God whose will we are trusting. He is the Father who sent His Son to save us.

The cross proves that even when God’s plan looks like defeat, He can be accomplishing something far greater than we can see.

So we can pray with confidence:

“Your will be done.”

Because we know God’s will is good and wise and loving…and better than our will.

Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father,

Your will is good and gracious. Forgive me for the times I resist Your will or trust my own plans more than You. Break and hinder everything that would draw me away from Christ, strengthen me through Your Word, and keep me steadfast in faith. When I do not understand what You are doing, help me to trust Your goodness. Through Jesus Christ, my Lord.

Amen.

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

• Your family
• Your local church
• Your pastor
• Some of your fellow church members
• The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
• Your country and her leaders
• Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.