Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground!

This evening we continue our preparation for the passion of our Lord by reflecting on the Third Petition in the Lord’s Prayer, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Luther explains in his Small Catechism that the good and gracious will of God is done indeed without our prayers. But we pray in this petition that it may be done among us also. The further explains that this is done when God breaks and hinders every evil counsel and will that would not let us hallow the name of God no let His kingdom come, such as the will of he devil, the world, and our flesh. Instead, He strengthens and keeps us steadfast in His Word and in faith until we die. This is His gracious and good will.

One of the questions that many Christians seem never to tire asking is: what is God’s will for my life? Those who so inquire about God’s will, however, are not always asking for the same thing. Some raise the question about God’s will as an inquiry about how God would like them to make decisions concerning matters they find important. Others are seeking answers to general questions about where is God and what is He up to in their lives. This evening, you are invited to ponder what it means during this Lenten Season to pray to God in the Lord’s Prayer, Thy will be done, believing full well that in the final scheme of things there is no doubt - it will be done. Yet, as Luther rightly explains, we are praying in the Lord’s Prayer that God’s will might be accomplished with us.

Now about God’s will being done among us there is a double sense concerning that will - a Law sense of the will of God and a sense that is manifested and worked among us in the Gospel. In a Law sense, the will of God to be done among us is that we would conform all that we do and say around a fear, love, and trust in God and that our labors might serve God in the needs of our neighbor. So in the Law sense, when we are praying the Lord’s Prayer, we are asking God to understand that it is our intention to bring our lives in conformity with His imperative, legal will and it is important for us to have Him understand and bless our efforts. Now we have been praying this petition for some time now as we have been praying the entire Lord’s Prayer - have we not? And at this point which of us is ready to drop this petition, raising our hands in thanksgiving to God that the mission has been accomplished? No, not one of us can raise our hands can we? And of course, the devil is there always to give us his counsel - keep prayin’, keep prayin’ he says. Your Lord seems not to be listening. Maybe he has given up on you. Your life simply is not manifesting His will much at all, even with all your efforts or lack of efforts.

But there is also a Gospel sense of the will of God being worked in our lives and this is the sense in which Luther instructs us to focus when we pray - Thy will be done.

Jesus taught us that it is the will of God that we would believe in the Son and in the One Who has sent Him. We pray in this petition during this Lenten Season as we make our journey with our Lord to Jerusalem that the will of the Lord might be done there by Him for us and for our salvation. When we pray thus, we join our Lord who prayed for the same thing in the Garden of Gethsemene. It is the Father’s will that the Son should suffer and die for our sins and that we should be reconciled to Him and forgiven our sins. It is the will of God that He should so work in our hearts a faith that would receive and cling to these saving gifts both now and always. And then as we pray about the will of God in the Lord’s Prayer for these things, we are then challenged to firmly believe that it shall be so.

On the experiential level, things are not going to be looking very good in Jerusalem for the cause of God’s will when Jesus arrives. He will be rejected, shamefully treated, betrayed, denied, abandoned, and left to die a criminal’s shameful death. It will look like God’s side of things is losing and the Devil is getting the upper hand. And to make matters worse; is it not the same when we look at our own lives and how we are doing against the evil forces from within and without. The world, the flesh, and devil are always giving us counsel that the will of God is not fairing very well with us either. Our lives do not reflect either love of God or neighbor very well. The world around us seems to be going to Hell in a hand basket and our petition, thy will be done, seems to be falling on deaf divine ears.

So we pray in this petition that God would give us the eyes and ears of faith by the power of His saving Word to see things as they really are. That God is indeed in control of things past, present, and future for us and for our salvation. He has brought you to faith in His Son, He has not only worked out your salvation in the Cross of Christ but wrapped you up in its gifts in your baptism. It may not seem according to your experience of this fallen world and your fallen life that things are really working out for your good or your happy future, but they are. They are. And you are invited to pray this petition this day and everyday - Thy will be done - asking your Heavenly Father to continue to so work his saving will in your life and give you the assurance of from keen eyes and ears of faith to see these things and to rest in them for your peace and relaxation. Take heart - His will is being done in your life and all for your good. And about these things when questions and challenges arise; always let God have the last Word. It is His will.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. A-men.