"Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." - Matthew 6:10
Jesus taught this prayer to his disciples. And through this verse, it is implied that God desires to perform His will on earth. But, how God accomplishes His will on earth? If we read the whole bible, we will come to know that God used various humans to execute His divine will. To carry out His master plan, God chose Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Gideon, Samson, Samuel, David, Elijah, Elisha, Daniel, John the Baptist, Peter, Paul, and the list goes on. This catalog of divinely chosen men is non-exhaustive as God will continue to add to this till the consummation of this age. And, we can be a part of this record by surrendering our lives to do His will.
Submitting to His will
In the Garden of Eden, after our first parents fell into sin through the cunningness of Satan, there was no way of escape from the wrath of God. So, to restore the lost glory to humanity, God devised a master strategy and, he promised to send His son to bruise the head of Satan on the cross of Calvary (Gen 3:15). And, when God decided to send his only begotten son to save us, Jesus Christ willingly submitted himself to fulfill the wish of His Father. In Psalm 40:7-8, He said, ‘Behold I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.‘ My dear readers, God has a preordained scheme for our life, formulated before the foundations of the world. But for that to happen through our life, the first step is submission. Are we thwarting his purposes or aligning with them? Like Jesus, is it our delight to do God’s will? Can we say as Jesus said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God’ (Heb 10:7)?
Humbling Ourselves
To do God’s will, we need to humble ourselves. Abraham was a native of the influential city Ur located in Mesopotamia and, he had a well-settled life over there. The city was an important trade center of that time. But when God called Abraham, he left everything behind and humbled himself in following the invisible God (Gen 12:1-4). When God called Moses for a massive task of delivering God’s people out of Egypt, he humbled himself by giving up his worldly status of being called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter (Heb 11:24). Upon receiving God’s call, Paul considered all his impressive ancestry and credentials as a loss for the sake of Christ and thereby humbled himself (Phili 3:4-8). Though Jesus Christ was in the form of God, He emptied himself and took the form of a servant. To fulfill His Father’s mandate, Jesus Christ abandoned the glorious seat in heaven and humbled Himself to the point of death! Are we ready to leave all our pride and humble ourselves to perform God’s will?
Suffering for Him
Doing the will of God involves suffering. It was the will of the Father God to crush Jesus Christ (Isa 53:10). Yes, He went through mental as well as physical distress. Let us recount few instances of our Savior’s suffering while the time of His crucifixion was nearing. The Gospel of John says that Jesus was troubled in his spirit (John 13:21). It is written about Jesus Christ in Matt 26:37-38 that he began to be sorrowful and troubled. He told Peter and the two sons of Zebedee that ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.’ In Luke 22:44, we read that ‘And being in agony he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.‘ Even though He prayed three times for the removal of the suffering, each time He resigned Himself to the will of His Father by saying ‘not as I will, but as you will (Matt 26:39-44)‘. The Roman soldiers slapped Jesus and scourged Him. They stripped Him of His clothes. After putting the crown of thorns on His head, they mocked and insulted Him. They spitted on His face and struck on His head with the reed. They led Him to the place of crucifixion with a heavy cross on His back. And, this is the example that Christ has left for us so that we might follow in His footsteps.
Glorious Results
Jesus not only suffered and died but, He still lives to see the result of His suffering. Due to His suffering, countless people were saved and added to the church during the last 2020 years. Bible says that the will of the Lord shall prosper in His hand (Isa 53:10), and Yes, it is still prospering even in our time. If we submit our life to do His will, humble ourselves, and willingly embrace whatever suffering comes in the way of our duty, then the will of the Lord will prosper through us also. If we suffer with Him, we will also reign with Him (2 Tim 2:12).
Dear readers, I pray that may God’s divine will be carried out through your life. May His will prosper in your hand. May you be a vessel for Master’s use. May God bless you all. Amen.
