The Lord’s Prayer
God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 1 Timothy 2:3b,4.
Since none of us fully know the mind of God and since His ways are past finding out (cf. Romans 11:33,34), are we able to know what God’s will for us is? The short answer is, Yes! Holy Scripture is full of revelations that make known God’s will for us. The Bible passage above bears this out. God’s will for us and all people is that we believe in Jesus as our Savior and thus become partakers of salvation. In God’s governance of our lives in good times and in bad, His uppermost purpose is our eternal welfare. The apostle Paul testifies in Romans, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (8:28)
It is important for us to keep in mind these truths concerning God’s providential care in our lives so that we do not lose heart or start to question God’s love for us when He allows or sends us trials or tribulations. Then we will be able to say to God, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The devil, the unbelieving world, and our own sinful flesh do not want God’s will to be done in our lives. And so, they will make every effort to dissuade us from accepting His will. Instead, they would have us reject God’s will and God Himself so that we are separated from Him and lose our part in the eternal kingdom of God.
Because of this opposition to God’s will, we need to keep in mind how Jesus was willing to accept God’s will, even His eternal will for Jesus to die on the cross for our eternal redemption. By accepting God’s will and carrying it out, Jesus defeated the spiritual enemies of our souls. Through the redeeming love of God in Christ we are empowered to pray “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.
“The will of God is always best and shall be done forever…”
The Lutheran Hymnal 517:1a