The Goodness Of His Will

The Goodness of His Will

Read: Matthew 6:9-13

“Your will be done.”

Matthew 6:10

“There are no disappointments to those whose wills are buried in the will of God.”

—Frederick Faber

IN WORD We know that we should pray for God’s will to be done, but we’re often afraid to. Why? Because we do not trust that His will is best for us. We think His agenda and ours are by nature at odds with one another. Because of our corruption, they may in fact be at odds. But if we could see the whole picture, we would understand that it is our own will that falls short of fulfilling our well-being, not His. If we really understood, we would know that when His will and ours contradict, His is by far the better of the two, not just for His own purposes, but also for our happiness and eternal blessing. If we could see as well as He does, we would choose His will over ours every time—not because we’re mature, selfless, and God centered, but even for our own self-interest. What He wants is always best for us.

Why is this so hard for us? Because we’re accustomed to human relationships between equals, in which a contradiction between two wills is almost always a contradiction between two self-interests. But our relationship with God is closer to the parent-child relationship in which the parent knows what’s best for the child and the child only thinks he knows what’s best for him. Both parent and child are zealous about the child’s well-being. But the parent is better qualified to define it properly. The child’s vision is too limited.

IN DEED Do you realize that when you pray for God’s will to be done, you are actually praying for your own best interests to be accomplished? In a sense, it is a very self- promoting prayer—not as a license for selfishness, but because God’s will for us never contradicts our own desire for blessing. He may lead us through hard times, but there will be greater blessing in the end. His eternal perspective eminently qualifies Him to take us through difficult places when He knows the ultimate outcome will fulfill our heart’s desires. Our vision is too limited to see this, so we hesitate to pray as Jesus instructed. But we will never be disappointed when we do.