Heaven On Earth

My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

Psalm 121:2

As citizens of a wealthy country, we may find ourselves believing that we can have anything we want, whenever we want it. That erroneous concept gets transferred to the spiritual life, especially when Christians read Bible verses that suggest we can ask for whatever we want “in Jesus’ name” and receive it.

In the prayer Jesus taught His disciples (and us) to pray, there is a needed corrective to that cultural conditioning. Praying for God’s will to be done “on earth as it is in heaven” is a way of aligning us with God’s will, not God with our will. God’s will is obviously done in heaven. If we pray for His will to be done on earth, it means that we will need to align ourselves with (conform to) His will. That means praying like this: “Father, I want Your will to be worked out on earth. If that means I need to change my life to have ‘heaven on earth,’ then I am willing to change. Please give me the grace and the power to make those changes.” The apostle John writes that when we pray according to His will (not our will), we know God hears and answers (1 John 5:14-15).

When you pray today, ask God to enable you to be conformed to His will so that it might be done on earth just as it is in heaven.

To obey God’s will is the way to have our will.

THOMAS WATSON^a