Thy Will Be Done

 The will of human beings is constantly unyielding, and they convince us that we are right. This is why we tend to be defensive when someone disagrees with us. And this defensiveness is automatic. It hinders our relationships and makes it difficult for us to listen to another viewpoint and consider whether this opinion has value. For example, the toddler is only 18 months old and believes he knows more than his parents. He does not, but his will is at odds with the will of his parents. Unless parents control that toddler’s will, they will face a monster in that same teenager.

Often, human wills are set against the will of God. James tells us that this conflict is why human wills often conflict with one another. If our wills were in harmony with God’s will, we would be in connection with each other. “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?” (James 4:1-3).

Just as a child defies parental authority, adults want to be free from the moral constraints of God’s authority. No matter how much we chaff at God’s authority---God has given Jesus authority over all. Paul wrote: “He is the head over every power and authority” (Colossians 2:10).

Every human will that is not aligned with Jesus being Lord of all is in conflict with the will of God. Psalm 2 recognizes how foolish this is and asks why they do it. “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed” (Ps 2:1-2).

As the gospel is proclaimed by the power of God’s Spirit, human wills can be turned to comply with the will of God. The gospel is God’s invitation for us to accept God’s will as our will. This is clearly advised in Psalm 2: “Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth.

Serve the Lord with fear and celebrate his rule with trembling” (Ps 2:10-11).

Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10). This prayer will change our lives!

Brokenness

While we may not want to admit it, we have been outmaneuvered. We thought we could manage our lives just fine. We were sure we knew best. We thought we were making the right choices, but all the while we were making bad decisions with devastating consequences. We couldn’t have been more wrong. We look back at our lives and feel regret. If only I had known this would have turned out like this, I would have done it differently. God knows when we make a bad choice, and he doesn’t say “I told you so.” He just opens his arms and lets us come home.

The prophet Isaiah pointed to ancient Judah as an example of how we try to handle things on our own but fail. Judah faced an ominous threat from the powerful, aggressive nation of Assyria. Instead of trusting God, they did everything they could without asking for God’s help. First, they went to Egypt, and then they tried to buy their freedom from the Assyrians. It finally dawned on them, as they saw their stupidity demonstrated right before their eyes, that they had been played for fools. The Assyrian horde had taken their money and double-crossed them. The Assyrians never had any intention of leaving. They were preparing to attack. Now Judah called on God—not the noblest motivation because God was their last resort. What is so surprising is that God heard their cry and came to their aid.

Here is their prayer, “O LORD, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning,

our salvation in time of distress” (Isa 33:2). The amazing thing is that when we finally do trust God, we find that he is more than enough to take care of us. We realize how foolish it was to not go to him from the very start. They cry aloud in the streets and are a broken people (Isa 33:7-9). They have made a mess out of things and have no idea how to fix it.

Now here we are at this broken state with our messed up lives. We do not even know which way to turn, and we have no idea how to fix the problem. The best thing that has happened to us is that in our brokenness we begin to see our stupidity of not depending on God, and what stupidity it is. Why didn’t we go to him in the first place?  The one good thing is that our brokenness invites God into our lives. God says, “"Now will I arise," says the LORD "Now will I be exalted; now will I be lifted up” (Isa 33:10). That “now” is a beautiful thing because it represents our brokenness as God’s opportunity to work in our lives.

Now that we have turned to God and repented of our rebellious ways, we can see God in another light. Isaiah says, “Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar” (Isa 33:17). We could never see God, and now we can see him in all his beauty. What a wonderful thing it is to see how lovely Jesus is. As Solomon wrote, “he is altogether lovely” (Song of Solomon 5:16). With that loveliness comes a sense of purpose and direction for our life.