In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus outlines for his disciples (and us) the elements that should be included in our daily prayers. Two of the Gospel writers, Matthew and Luke, include this model prayer, with Matthew’s version being the more fleshed-out version. To Luke’s simple “Your kingdom come,” Matthew adds “…your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).
We tend to tack the words “… if it be your will, Lord” onto the end of a prayer, just in case our requests do not quite match God’s will. But “your will be done” means more than that. Besides expressing our heartfelt desire to see the kingdom of God prevail in our chaotic world and also in our personal circumstances, “your will be done” represents the trustful surrender of our own opinions and desires. Our omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent Father is also omnibenevolent. He is love (1 John 4:8b). Without understanding everything that his will includes, we must trust him with the results of our prayers.
—Mike Deering (Ruling Elder)
