Teach Us toPray

Studies in the Lord's Prayer By PHILIP FOSTER.

Part 3: The Lord's Prayer Your will be done on earth as it in in heaven..
"I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD. Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare. Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced; burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, "Here I am, I have come — it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart. I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; I do not seal my lips, as you know, O LORD. I do not hide your righteousness in my heart; I speak of your faithfulness and salvation. I do not conceal your love and your truth from the great assembly. Do not withhold your mercy from me, O LORD; may your love and your truth always protect me. For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me. Be pleased, O LORD, to save me; O LORD, come quickly to help me. May all who seek to take my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace. May those who say to me, "Aha! Aha!" be appalled at their own shame. But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, The LORD be exalted! Yet I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, do not delay". Psalm 40:1-17
"Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane and he said to them, `Sit here while I go over there and pray'. He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled.
Then he said to them, `My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me'. Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, `My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will'.
Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. `Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?' he asked Peter.
`Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.' He went away a second time and prayed, `My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done'. When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, `Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners'.
`Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!' While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people." Matthew 26:36-47

WHEN we pray, this is the focal point of any prayer: Your will be done. It is nearly a truism to be reminded that if we come to God in prayer asking Him to bless our plans then God is not going to act. He is not interested in our plans; He is concerned that His will be done in us on earth. That we be willing agents in the furthering of his will. Once again the hustle of the Western world often does the opposite. We dream up schemes and plans — doubtless good and well intentioned plans and then ask that God take them on board.
Put that way, we know it's wrong of course, but we do it none the less. We seldom stop and ask if any of what we think we should do is on God's agenda.
Except a grain of wheat fall onto the ground and die it cannot bear fruit. We can genuinely seek God's honour and glory yet be totally wrong in what we are doing to that end.

Let's consider Moses

He saw the oppression of his people, but he acted impetuously and wrongly.
"One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labour. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.
Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, `Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?'
The man said, `Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?' Then Moses was afraid and thought, `What I did must have become known.'
When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. Here Moses was to stay for many long years. Here he had to learn to put self to death and be ready to act only as God wills." Exodus 2:11-16
So much of what we plan personally or as churches are of this order — the desire may be right, but the reality cannot happen until first God has dealt with us, so that our old nature does not get in the way. We try to build a house as it were, but are using the wood, hay and stubble of earthly fleshly methods. It will be burned with fire. Both the shanty house and the stone house are built to give shelter — there is no doubt about the aim, but unless the foundation is right as in Matthew 7, when the troubles come it will not stand. King David understood this very well:
"Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare. Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced; burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, `Here I am, I have come — it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart." Psalm 40:5-8

He understood first of all that none of us can tell God his business! Rather we lay aside our own plans and ask for God's. Now where are we to find them? Once again David is quite clear. Your law is written in my heart.
That must be where we are to start. Jesus did not begin to do any public ministry until he was 30 years old. Up till then he was preparing, he was learning the Word, he was being instructed as to who He was and what God's will for him would be.
"The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught. The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back." Isaiah 50:4-5
He was ready to be obedient — and to wait — until God was ready for Him. We see the same with the apostle Paul. After his conversion, he spent three years (at least) in Arabia, being ready to be taught and prepared for the task God had given him.
Now, of course, in seeking to do the will of God, there are often smaller issues in our lives where the bible has no prescriptive statements: should we take this job or that, buy this house, pray for healing etc. etc. James has some solid advice for us:
"Now listen, you who say, `Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money'. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
Instead, you ought to say, `If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that'." James 4:13-15
"If the Lord wills," is not just a pious phrase. Now there are some foolish teachers and books around that suggest that to pray "If it be your will" is to display a lack of faith in such matters! Believe God for this house or job or healing they say, don't weaken your faith by saying "If it be your will".
First, by so saying they are contradicting the plain teaching of scripture, second they make a wholly disastrous confusion between biblical faith and will-power and third they mistake our will or desires for the will of God.
The bible, as we saw, commands that we seek the will of God and where we are unsure (as we always are in the region of personal or communal desires) we qualify our prayers appropriately. We see Jesus himself at the supreme moment of trial praying in just this way.
Second, mistaking faith for will power. This is very common — we think that if we believe in the sense of willing our minds to imagine the outcome God will answer. Biblical faith is not like that — remember faith and faithfulness are almost synonymous. If we are not praying in faithfulness to God and his wider purposes then it is not faith at all.
In Hebrews 3:18-19 "And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief."

Lack of faith equals disobedience

Remember Acts 1:6-8?

The Kingdom is God's business!

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Appeared in Issue 7 -- February 2000
"...contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" -- Jude v3