Thy Will Be Done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Matthew 6:10.
God’s will is perfect for a broken world, and we must keep reminding ourselves that our world is broken. It has been infected by sin and death. Suffering, pain, corruption, and deterioration are all the fruits of a corrupted world.
God’s will is perfect for His people. Christ died to break the curse of this corruption in us. We must constantly remind ourselves that all humans have divine worth because we are created in God’s image. No one has greater value than anyone else, but no one is good. Romans 3 reminds us that no one seeks after God; each of us has gone our own way. When we die, we will never be good enough to be entitled to a better place. Only through faith in Christ can we become citizens of heaven. Only through God’s provision in His One and Only Son can we be right with God. Christ is God’s will for all humanity in every sense of the word.
God’s will is fundamentally opposed to the way of the world. Proverbs 3:5-6 is a powerful text that constantly resonates in my mind: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” The point is clear: what works in the world is not the way God works. Since God is stepping into a broken and sinful world, His way of doing things will often fundamentally differ from how the world operates. Acknowledging the Lord in everything we do is how we understand Christ’s mind for everything we do.
God’s will defines reality and righteousness. Our worldview must be shaped by our heavenly Father. He is the only one who properly sees the world as it really is and can help us navigate it according to His will. If we want to do the things that please Him, we need to know and obey His will. His will is the only means by which we can have confidence in living in a manner that He approves. We do not have to reinvent life, but we do need to trust Him. Sometimes His will is not how we want to choose, and it may not be how we feel. Doing His will may seem uncomfortable because His ways are not our ways. God has designed our relationship with Him in such a way that it requires faith (Heb. 11:6). No matter what we do, faith must be involved. We can only do His will if we trust Him more than our own intuition, our common sense or human logic. Nothing in us can create His will. Nothing we can imagine can manufacture His will. We need to know His will and then obey it.
In His grace, Pastor Brad.
