Your Will Be Done
“When you pray…”, Jesus said to His disciples, “…pray like this…” Prayer is a learned discipline. The disciples noticed that the followers of John the Baptist knew how to pray a certain way, so they wanted Jesus to teach them to pray His way. Jesus warned them to avoid praying as the hypocrites did, because they just wanted to be seen as spiritual by others. This kind of prayer was more horizontal, rather than vertical. It didn’t go past the ceiling. He also didn’t want them to pray as did the Gentiles, who were eloquent in their many words and requests. We should not try to impress God with our prayers, nor should we go to Him just to have Him stamp His approval on all our requests.
Jesus taught that prayer was a way to relate with the Father. It was not need based, nor motivated by personal advantage. It was conversing with the Almighty. One didn’t have to yell to be heard, because the Lord was near to those who came to Him in prayer. Prayer was to be personal, private and positional. Jesus modeled this to His disciples and He desires that we all pray this way.
Since this, “Lord’s Prayer”, was taught orally and not written down until much later, it was divided into subjects, so to be easily remembered. It was never intended to be used as a rote prayer, but merely as an outline to follow. Instead of reciting this prayer, which one could do without even thinking about what one was saying, it was to be personal. One was to use his own words, direct his prayer to his heavenly Father and open his heart, as if no one else were listening.
Jesus instructed his disciples to find a secret place to pray in. He was saying that we have access to the Father in His name. We can confess our sins directly to the Lord. We can receive from God all that we need. He was opening the way to relate to the Father on a one on one basis. There was no separation of a veil, no need to go through the priests and no formal ceremonies to follow. He was saying: “Come as you are. Go into your room and shut the door. He is waiting for you.”
Prayer is also positional in that God is our Father and we are His children. We exalt His name above our own and above any other name that is named. Prayer involves not only speaking, but also listening. When we pray, “Your will be done,” we are requesting that the Lord direct our lives. We recognize His Lordship and authority over us and we are making a conscious effort to submit to His will. Because we have a tendency to go our own way, the submitting of our will to God’s will should be done whenever we pray.
Scriptures to meditate on:
Mat. 6:5-15, 33; 26:36-39; Luke 11:1-4; 12:22-31