Luke 11:2 And he said to them, When you pray, say, Our Father which are in heaven, Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done… This is the petition with which we have the closest concern. It shows us what ought to be the great aim and end of our lives — that we may be able to do the will of God. After praying to our Father that His name may be hallowed, and that His kingdom may come, we pray that His will may be done; for, unless His will be done, His kingdom cannot come, His name cannot be hallowed. Can a father be said to be honoured by his children while they are disobeying him? Can a king be said to reign over His subjects while they are rebelling against him? At the Fall man set up his own will against God's; and so his will became corrupt and tainted, as everything must become when God's purifying Spirit leaves it. Man set up his own will. This is the great disease and the main evil of our nature. It comes to us from our parents; it shows itself soon after our birth; and the seeds of it continue to lurk, even in the best of men, as long as they remain in the body. Having thus found out the cause of the disorder, we may more easily see how it is to be cured. We must get rid of that cause; we must root out that self-will which is the source of the whole evil. We must take God's wilt for our rule and guide, and must endeavour by all the means in our power, by prayer, by meditation, by self-denial, to bring our own will first into complete obedience to God's, and then to make it one with God's. Then there is another portion of God's will which must also be taken into account. I mean that portion of it which is done towards us, and which exercises our patience and our faith, as that portion of it which is to be done by us exercises our obedience and activity. We must sacrifice our wills to the will of God, not merely by doing His will, but by suffering His will, with faith, submission, and contentment. (A. W. Hare.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. |
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