The Lord's Prayer, line by line

Thy Will Be Done, in Earth as It Is in Heaven

Petition 4 of 8 · Matthew 6:10 · The Lord's Prayer

Jesus teaches us to surrender our will to God's, and to ask that his good purposes be done on earth as perfectly and gladly as they are done in heaven. It is a prayer to want what God wants, to trust that his will is good even when it is hard, and to become, on earth, the kind of people who do it with joy.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.Matthew 6:10 (KJV)

Learning to say, thy will

Of all the petitions, this is the one that costs the most and heals the most. Thy will be done is the surrender of the self-willed heart, the laying down of my plans and demands into the hands of a good Father. It is the hardest sentence in the prayer and, in the end, the door to peace.

Jesus did not ask of us anything he was unwilling to do himself. In the garden of Gethsemane, facing the cross, he prayed, not my will, but thine, be done. He taught us these words and then he lived them where it was hardest, so that when we pray thy will be done we are following in the footsteps of the One who prayed it in blood and tears and was heard.

What the words mean

God's will can mean two things, and both belong here. There is his will of command, what he asks of us, his good and pleasing purposes for how we should live. And there is his will of purpose, all that he sovereignly ordains, the unfolding of his plan even through what we do not choose or understand. To pray thy will be done is to embrace both: to ask for grace to do what he commands, and to trust him with what he ordains.

In earth, as it is in heaven sets the standard breathtakingly high. In heaven God's will is done fully, swiftly, and joyfully, without reluctance or delay. The prayer asks that the same be true here, in this stubborn and sorrowing world, and, first of all, in me. It is a prayer for earth to become like heaven in the one way that matters most, that God's good will be gladly done.

That little phrase, as it is in heaven, quietly reaches back over the first three petitions as well. Let your name be hallowed as it is in heaven; let your kingdom come as it is in heaven; let your will be done as it is in heaven. In heaven all three are already perfectly true, and the prayer asks that earth would catch up to heaven, that the gap between how things are and how God means them to be would close, beginning in the small country of our own hearts and spreading out until the whole earth is at last at home in the will of God.

Why it follows thy kingdom come

The two petitions belong together. Where God reigns, his will is done; to pray thy kingdom come and then thy will be done is to say the same longing twice, first as the coming of the King, then as the doing of what he wills. The kingdom is not an idea but a life lived under God's good rule, and this line spells out what that life looks like: his will, done on earth as in heaven.

It also completes the first half of the prayer. The first three petitions have all been about God, his name, his kingdom, his will. Only after we have wanted God's glory, God's reign, and God's will do we turn, in the second half, to our own needs. The prayer teaches us to align our hearts with heaven before we bring earth's requests.

What it teaches about God, and about us

About God it teaches that his will is good, wise, and loving, worthy to be done on earth as in heaven. We do not surrender to a tyrant or a blind fate but to a Father who wants for us better things than we would choose for ourselves. His will is not the ruin of our joy but the road to it.

About us it teaches how deeply we cling to our own way. The whole trouble of the human heart is gathered in three words we are slow to say: thy will, not mine. To pray this line honestly is to feel the resistance and to ask God to soften it, until wanting what he wants becomes not a grim duty but our gladness. Heaven is full of creatures who do God's will with joy; the prayer asks that we begin to become like them, here and now.

A common misunderstanding

Some hear thy will be done as words of grim resignation, the sigh of the defeated, muttered when there is nothing left to do. But in Gethsemane it was not resignation; it was trust wrestled through to love, an active handing over of the self to a Father who could be trusted even with the cross. It is not I give up but I trust you.

Others fear this prayer, as though God's will were sure to be something dreadful, so that to pray it is to invite pain. But God's will is not against our good; it is our good, even when it leads through hard country. To pray thy will be done is not to brace for the worst but to entrust ourselves to the best, to a wisdom higher than ours and a love that will not fail.

How to pray this line

Pray it about the thing you are gripping. Bring to God the situation you are trying to control, the outcome you are demanding, the future you are anxious about, and open your hands. Say thy will be done over it, and mean it as far as you can, and ask for grace to mean it more.

Pray it for obedience, too, not only for acceptance. Ask God to help you do his will today, in the small choices where you know what he asks and are tempted to go your own way. And pray it as intercession, that his good purposes would be done in your family, your church, your nation, on earth as in heaven. Let the line make you both surrendered and willing, at rest in his purpose and eager to do his command.

The heart of the gospel here

We could never have prayed thy will be done and lived it, for our wills are bent. So Jesus did it for us and ahead of us. His whole life was the doing of the Father's will. I came down from heaven, he said, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And when that will led to the cross, he did not turn back. Not my will, but thine, be done, he prayed, and then he went and did it, and our salvation was won.

By his obedience we are saved, and by his Spirit we are being remade into people who can begin, however falteringly, to want what he wants. So this petition is not a burden laid on us alone. We pray it in the One who prayed it perfectly, whose surrender in the garden opened heaven for us, and whose life in us is teaching our hearts to say, more and more, thy will be done.

The other petitions and more: Our Father which art in heaven · Hallowed be thy name · Thy kingdom come · Give us this day our daily bread · And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors · And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil · For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen · The whole prayer · How to pray · Prayer