The Lord's Prayer: Third Petition

Third Petition: May Your Will Come About on Earth as in Heaven.

Just as God’s kingdom comes with or without our prayer, so too does his will.  However, our hope and prayer is that God’s will might come and include us in it.  Martin Luther makes clear what this will of God entails.  It is about being steadfast to God’s holy Word and having an abiding faith in the God who gives all good gifts and saves us from sin, death, and the devil.

  

Luther, who was plagued by the devil in his life, reminds the church that to be a faithful disciple means that we will be subjected to suffering and attacks by the evil one.  So that we do not lose heart, he reminds us that there is hope against such treachery, “Against them a simple Christian or two, armed with this single petition, shall be our bulwark, against which they shall dash themselves (the devil, tyrants, heretics, and those who plot and scheme against God’s will) to pieces.”

  Luther was certain that God’s will would prevail against all powers that tried to thwart it, “For if their will were not broken and frustrated, the kingdom of God could not abide on earth nor his name be hallowed.”

When we continue growing deeper in our faith, for some reason we are astonished at the road blocks that seem to start popping up all around us.  It is the same for a congregation that sets its collective heart on discipleship and the mission of Christ.  Why should this surprise us?  Perhaps because we realize what a move that has been made in our lives toward Christ and we are so thrilled about it, so wrapped up in God’s grace that it never occurred to us that something might want to keep us from walking that glorious path with Jesus.  I have seen it repeatedly, in my own life and in the lives of those I serve as pastor.  The closer we get to Christ, the more severe the attacks become, and they come from the most unexpected places.

It is a true consolation to read these words of Martin Luther when we are in the throes of being spiritually attacked from all sides.  To know that someone else has been through this and can assist us and strengthen us with his encouragement, pointing us back to our great protector can be a tremendous relief.  Luther describes how the devil works to distract the faithful from God’s holy will:

For no one can believe how the devil opposes and obstructs their (the first two petitions of the Lord’s prayer) fulfillment.  He cannot bear to have anyone teach or believe rightly.  It pains him beyond measure when his lies and abominations, honored under the most specious pretexts of God’s name, are disclosed and exposed in all their shame, when they are driven out of people’s hearts and a breach is made in his kingdom.

It is as if we can hear Luther singing his most famous hymn, A Mighty Fortress if Our God, as we read and ponder his helpful words:  

And though this world, with devils filled, 

should threaten to undo us, 

we will not fear, for God hath willed 

his truth to triumph through us.  

The Prince of Darkness grim, 

we tremble not for him; 

his rage we can endure, 

for lo, his doom is sure; 

one little word shall fell him.

The devil is a master at stirring things up, in us personally and in our congregations.  He will stop at nothing to separate us from one another and from our holy Father.  It is his scheme to take us off track of our mission and ministry in Christ and if he can get folks fussing and fuming, fighting and bickering, grandstanding, holding hostage, throwing temper tantrums, and engaging in pot stirring, he will do it.  If the devil cannot get us off track through conflict and confusion he will resort to apathy, complacency, mediocrity, lethargy and passivity.  Luther reminds us that it is the devil’s sole purpose to get believers away from being concerned about God’s will and “he strives without rest day and night, using all the arts, tricks, methods, and approaches that he can devise.”

The community of faith serves to remind one another that this is bound to happen and that they are not alone.  Instead of giving up, worrying that God has abandoned us to the devil’s devices, we come to Him in prayer asking that His holy will be done in us just as it is done in heaven and on earth.  Following Luther’s advice we remain steadfast in the Word of God, digging deeper into the pure milk of the gospel even as we are fed the wine and driven to the cross of Christ.

  We pray that God’s will might include us, our lives, our work, our mission in Christ and with that that God would fill us up with Christ, replacing our fear, loneliness, and emptiness with Christ Jesus alone.  We pray this as a community faith as we are in this together; we are never alone as we seek to submit to God’s will and obediently follow Christ.  

Image is Wartburg Castle from:  guide-to-castles-of-europe.com