Saturday, March 13, 2010

The Lord's Prayer - Thy Will Be Done - Intercession

In a series of sermons on the Lord's prayer, Craig Henson, the pastor of Venice Church where I am a member, was discussing the phrase "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."  I had always seen this particular request of God as just that.  Please God, would you move the pieces of the chess board around so that people will start doing things on earth as it is in heaven.   Or by including the first few words of the verse "Thy Kingdom come," I thought it might be a request of the Lord that her hurry up with the bring about of His end time plan where things on earth will be like heaven. 

I make no claim to being very good at interpreting scripture.  I am thrilled to have been gifted with a copy of J Vernon McGee's "Thru the Bible" several years ago (Thank you Christian), that is my guide to understanding context and intention.  But I do have my own personal interpretation of this verse. 

Until Your Kingdom comes I pray that my actions would be within Your will so that I might provide evidence of heaven here on earth, and thereby also experience some of what heaven will provide.  This interpretation results in a few important results. 

First, it put the responsibility squarely in my lap.  Jesus was doing the will of His Father.  I am to do the will of my Father.  I have no responsibility for anyone else doing so, nor do I have an control over whether anyone else follows this directive.  To the extent that I do the will of God, it undoubtedly will effect how others act, but my responsibility begins and ends with my own decisions and actions.

Second, I have no control over others anyway.  The only hope I have in helping others to do the will of God here on earth is by example, by prayerful intercession, and by sharing the Word with others.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for a great and important post.
There is a super book about this topic. It is called "Thy WIll Be Done On Earth: Understanding God's Will for You" by award-winning Christian author Robert Lloyd Russell.

Randy Kirk said...

Thank you so much for that recommendation. I will see about getting a copy.