"Thy will be done"
God doesn't want us disconnected from Him by disobedience, but neither is he interested in puppets on a string.
He is looking for a cooperative union.
The best example (as usual) of this is found in Jesus Christ, who always did what pleased the Father, and, on the sole recorded occasion where Christ's will differed from the Father's, prayed, "OK then, not my will but thine be done".
Jesus taught us to pray, "thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven", which implies that it is not being done down here. ((This doctrine must be balanced with the doctrine of the sovereignty of God (nobody said doing theology was easy.))
Jesus went about "doing good, and healing all that were sick and oppressed of the devil". Was it God's will that these people be sick and oppressed? Apparently not! But it took an intercessor, it took a clean, sanctified, and committed vessel, for the will of God to break into these peoples' lives. So, when we pray "thy will be done", we may be interceding at a local, or national, or international level disconnected from ourselves, but just as likely we are praying that God would clean us up and use us as he did Jesus.
The Lord commanded us to preach the gospel. Is it his will that people remain lost and without hope? Apparently not! Clearly, the gospel message is the primary agency of God's will. That is why churches that have ceased to preach a life-transforming message have ceased to be properly Christian.
The Father and Jesus were really of the same mind and heart. Only when we understand the absolute justice, goodness, and love of God's heart can we lay down our own tired, small, rebellious hearts and trade them in for his big, big heart. And only then will his kingdom come, his will be done, and only then will we be able to do the works that Jesus did -- as he promised we would.
He is looking for a cooperative union.
The best example (as usual) of this is found in Jesus Christ, who always did what pleased the Father, and, on the sole recorded occasion where Christ's will differed from the Father's, prayed, "OK then, not my will but thine be done".
Jesus taught us to pray, "thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven", which implies that it is not being done down here. ((This doctrine must be balanced with the doctrine of the sovereignty of God (nobody said doing theology was easy.))
Jesus went about "doing good, and healing all that were sick and oppressed of the devil". Was it God's will that these people be sick and oppressed? Apparently not! But it took an intercessor, it took a clean, sanctified, and committed vessel, for the will of God to break into these peoples' lives. So, when we pray "thy will be done", we may be interceding at a local, or national, or international level disconnected from ourselves, but just as likely we are praying that God would clean us up and use us as he did Jesus.
The Lord commanded us to preach the gospel. Is it his will that people remain lost and without hope? Apparently not! Clearly, the gospel message is the primary agency of God's will. That is why churches that have ceased to preach a life-transforming message have ceased to be properly Christian.
The Father and Jesus were really of the same mind and heart. Only when we understand the absolute justice, goodness, and love of God's heart can we lay down our own tired, small, rebellious hearts and trade them in for his big, big heart. And only then will his kingdom come, his will be done, and only then will we be able to do the works that Jesus did -- as he promised we would.
posted by BallBounces at 4:57 PM
1 Comments:
I did not hear the gospel preached the last time I attended a United Church.
Instead I heard about how sensitive and ecologically sound the native North Americans were and how wicked I was for not handing over my wallet to them.
I found it amazing but some of the congregation were very satisfied with this flagellation.
I suspect they would find the gospels quite alien because they never hear about them.
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