Are You Praying, "Thy Will Be Done"? Then, Are You Seeking To Do God's Will When It Is Revealed? A Point to Ponder...

"Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven"

“Thy Will Be Done”[1]

Scripture Portion 

Thy will be done Matthew 6: 10

I shall not dwell, for lack of time, upon the third petition here, which is but an expansion of the preceding. For, as I have said, whenever God's reign has fully come, then his will must be done on earth. Many things occur now that are not according to God's will. The prayer is that God's will may take place; that everything may happen on earth in accordance with God's will, as in heaven everything does happen. Many times for us, I know it is hard even to consent that this shall be so. When it is plainly God's will that something should happen, which to us is painful, we shrink and with difficulty we say, "Thy will be done." No wonder: it has been so with better persons than we are. Certain disciples, when they besought Paul not to go up to Jerusalem and he would not be persuaded, ceased and said: "The will of the Lord be done." The struggling Saviour [sic] in Gethsemane as he strove in agony and prayer to nerve himself up for what he had to bear, said again and again for it would not stay said: "nevertheless, not my will, but thine he done." No wonder we find it hard sometimes to say that. The prayer teaches us not merely to submit to God's will, but to desire that God's will may take place in the world; that everything concerning us and concerning all around us may happen according to his will. And if he takes away our property, our health, our usefulness, our life, or someone we love better than our life, still we would say and we should rejoice when we say, "Thy will be done." Oh, if it could be so; if in the world, whether gaining or losing, in success or failure, it could be so, in us and about us, that God's will were done in all things, what a joy in the thought; what a springing gladness it puts into the heart, the very idea!

[1] Vernon Latrelle Stanfield, ed., Favorite Sermons of John A. Broadus (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1959), 66-74.