Doing God's Will

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality

1 Thessalonians 4:3^NKJV

This morning we look at Westminster Larger Catechism Question 192, which asks, “What do we pray for in the third petition?” It gives the answer, “In the third petition (which is, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven,) acknowledging, that by nature we and all men are not only utterly unable and unwilling to know and do the will of God, but prone to rebel against his word, to repine and murmur against his providence, and wholly inclined to do the will of the flesh, and of the devil: we pray, that God would by his Spirit take away from ourselves and others all blindness, weakness, indisposedness, and perverseness of heart; and by his grace make us able and willing to know, do, and submit to his will in all things, with the like humility, cheerfulness, faithfulness, diligence, zeal, sincerity, and constancy, as the angels do in heaven.”

How many people do you know who are looking for God’s will?  They are trying to find out whom they should marry, or what job they should take, or in what they should major at college, or where they should move, and their biggest concern is that they do not want to do anything that is not God’s will! We can understand their dilemma because we immediately recognize the importance of each one of those decisions.  Such momentous questions affect the rest of our lives, and will determine to a large extent, to what degree we will be happy and content in the things of this world.  And of course that is the problem.  All of these questions, as important as they are to our status, ease, financial, and physical well-being in this life, have very little to do with what we are to pray for when we ask God, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” 

In heaven, the angels are not all concerned about going to the right (most conducive to their material success) school, taking the best (most fulfilling to them) job, living in the finest (most enjoyable to them) lot, getting the most (according to their desires) of life.  No, with regard to the angels doing God’s will in heaven, the prayer is speaking to their obedience.  It is referring to their being holy as God is holy, being righteous as God is righteous, loving what God loves and hating what God hates.  As a believer in Christ, to rightly pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven is to pray for my sanctification: that my old sin-loving heart will more and more be put to death and that my new obedience-loving nature will more and more become my true and only self.  To think primarily of my own ease, comfort, and success in this life with regard to God’s will is to think like an unconverted person.  A Christian should be most concerned with what God wants most of all.  And what God wants most of all is for us to be like Him morally.

In other words the first thing we should consider when we pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is done right nowin heaven is the reason why God’s will is not right now done on earth as it is right now done in heaven.  And that reason is sin.  Not just the sin of evil people and terrorists not doing God’s will, but my sin, which is to say, my part in not doing God’s will.  To truly offer this request, every Christian must believe and confess that he does not do God’s will perfectly in any single thought, word, or act.  God’s will here does not refer to His secret plan that is known only to Him and that by definition is done perfectly at all times and by all things.  God’s secret plan for all things is His decretive will.  It includes all things good and bad.  Even the crucifixion of Jesus and all of the evils leading up to it was in accordance with this secret plan of God, as Scripture clearly affirms: “for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place” (Act. 4:27-28). The decretive will of God is already done on earth as it is in heaven.  In fact, nothing in all creation can stop it or change it in the very slightest.  We do not pray for this aspect of God’s will.  It is none of our concern (Deu. 29:29).

No, what we are to pray for when we pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” is that you and I and every other sinful rebellious person on this planet, whether converted or not, would turn from our remaining sin and delight in and do only the holy and perfect law of God now and forevermore.  This is what heaven is like and this is what the earth should and one day will be like.  And part of our great privilege as believers in Christ is—even while we still remain sinners in and of ourselves—to ask for God to bring that perfect condition to pass.  And the good news is that one day He will!