Thy will be done

FROM A GUEST BLOGGER 
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“… Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Matthew 6:10

We believe that God is sovereign; He is on the throne, governing all things.  Nothing that happens is outside of His control.  His good purposes will be worked out and nothing can prevent it.  (Isaiah 46:10; Job 42:2; Ephesians 1:11).  

But does God always get what He wants?  If He does, why did Jesus tell us to pray ‘Your will be done’?  

In this fallen world many, many things happen that are completely at odds with God’s revealed will as expressed in His Word.  His commands are broken every day.  A brief glance at the newspaper shouts loudly that most of what happens in the world is far from God’s will.  Even His own children are capable of all kinds of sin, and I cannot escape the fact that in my own life the battle with my sinful nature continues to rage and  I do not consistently or adequately conform to God’s will.   
When sin wreaks its devastating damage in my life or in the world, it can be comforting to know that God’s ultimate plans and purposes, His sovereign will, cannot be thwarted.  But a fatalistic view of God’s sovereignty that shrugs its shoulders and immediately says of evil, ‘Well, it must be God’s will’, can double the pain and leave me with more questions than answers.  

​When bad things happen I must trust in the truth that nothing takes God by surprise and even the worst is ordained by Him for His glory;  I must hold tight to the promise that He “causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28);  I must learn to walk by faith and not by sight when nothing that I can see makes sense, keeping my eyes resolutely fixed upon the unseen (2 Corinthians 4:18) and setting my heart upon what is eternal, not what is passing away;  I must remember that His ultimate purpose is to conform me to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29); and I must keep on praying for His will to be done: that His name will be feared, His commands obeyed, sinners saved, His people sanctified, His name glorified.