Desiring God

Thy will be done  Matthew 6:10

Will – “But how do I know what God’s will is?”  Have you struggled with that question?  I have – more often than not.  I long to do His will, but knowing what He wants in any of the various gray areas of my life is not so easy to determine.  Sure, I have to book of instructions (the Torah), but I am hard pressed to find anything there about retirement plans, career moves, home schooling or automobile choices.  Nevertheless, I pray, “Your will be done,” as if I knew what it really was.  And, since I am often quite confused about the correct choice, I add the cover phrase “if it’s Your will, Lord,” to most of my prayers.

That doesn’t seem to be what Yeshua had in mind.  He doesn’t appear to vacillate over direction.  In fact, there isn’t even a hint of doubt in this part of the model prayer.  Yeshua prays boldly for the exercise of the Father’s will.  Or so it seems.  Let’s take a look.

The Greek word thelema is very common in classical Greek, but it is surprisingly rare in the New Testament.  When we look at its Hebrew equivalent (rason), we find something even more interesting.  Rason is not about rational decisions like the Greek word.  It is about passionately birthed desire.  In other words, Yeshua is not talking about all the choices that make up God’s purpose and direction.  He is talking about the joy, delight and passion that belong to the character of what God does.  Did you get that?  It’s hard to re-think in a world that is saturated with the notion that will is about cognition.  We split emotion and will, but Hebrew is a lot fuzzier.  To proclaim God’s will is to announce my delight, joy and passion for His display.  It is to endorse His glorification in action.  Furthermore, this phrase commits me to His holiness because the only thing God must do is exhibit His holy character.  What God does is holy.  Therefore, when I pray “Your will be done,” I am asking that He manifest Himself as holy regardless of my agenda or interpretation.  And, of course, this is exactly what God already does.  So, my petition is really a declaration of His inscrutable righteousness.  Speaking blessings upon His will is, at the same time, my commitment to contentment.  I declare that I am content with His purposes.  I long for His holiness to be manifest.  I delight in seeing it.

Sounds good, doesn’t it?  And it is good, except that it immediately confronts us with our own resistance to His will.  How can we pray for God’s holiness to be manifest and for contentment with this manifestation and then immediately ask Him to explain what He requires of us.  You see, the will of God is not found in peaceful co-existence.  It is found in obedience!  God has already revealed His moral will.  It’s called the Torah.  To pray for His will to be the passionate delight of my life and, at the same time, refuse to be obedient to the manifestation of His instructions is not only self-contradiction, it is sin.  This has nothing to do with His freely given grace.  This has everything to do with delighting in Him.  The disciples knew exactly what Yeshua meant.  Do we?

One additional clarification must be made.  Contentment is not passive.  It is self-surrender in the active pursuit of the eschatological horizon of the coming government of God.  OK, maybe that’s a bit too theological.  What I’m saying is the when I am content with God’s purposes, I do not sit idly by and wait for Him to do everything.  My declaration is a statement of my active obedience and passionate decision to do whatever is required of me to fulfill His purposes within His Kingdom.  My will is subsumed in His will.  I do the Kingdom because I live the Kingdom.  And I never rest until I am fully content in Him.

Topical Index:  will, thelema, rason, contentment, Torah, Matthew 6:10