Thy will be done…

Thy will be done…

We have come to the 3^rd imperative in the Lord’s Prayer. But I have to get something off my chest.

I knee jerk at the idea that it is wrong to pray “thy will be done” or that praying the Lord’s prayer is “vain repetition”. I have read some word-of-faith teachers claim that praying “if it be your will” or “thy will be done” is evidence of a lack of faith. The hyper-grace teachers claim that the Lord’s prayer belongs to the old covenant and therefore it is not for Christians. Both of these assertions are ridiculous.

Here’s why. Now I might step on some toes, so if I do I’m sorry. Soapbox mode ON.

Praying the Lord’s prayer is praying scripture not “vain repetition”.

“Use not vain repetitions” is the King James translation, other translations say, “Do not use meaningless repetition” (NASB), “Do not heap up empty phrases” (ESV), or “Do not keep on babbling” (NIV). To suggest that praying the word of God back to God is vain or babbling is nonsense. The word of God spoken is powerful. “But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it” (Deu 30:14). We have been entrusted with the word of God and reading it, speaking it, praying it, meditating on it are all ways of learning it and keeping it in our heart.

Psalm 119 is full of examples:

13 With my lips I declare

all the rules of your mouth.

43 And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth,

48 I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love,

and I will meditate on your statutes.

54 Your statutes have been my songs

in the house of my sojourning.

And here is a New Testament example:

Eph 5:18 &19

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,

Eph 6: 17 & 18

take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

I would have to say that it is appropriate to worship God with His word in prayer from the passages above.

What about a lack of faith? Does praying “thy will be done” or “if it be your will” demonstrate a lack of faith? Here’s the rub. Insinuating that someone is deficient in faith because they claim not to know the will of God is also insinuating that somehow you are superior in your faith since you don’t pray like that. Well, how convenient for you. So then if you are superior in faith how about you just tell them what the will of God is and they won’t need to pray at all since they are standing in front of you, the prophet that insinuates!

What about the Lord’s prayer being a part of the old covenant according to hyper-grace teachers? Dumb and dumber. The logic goes like this.

1. The portions of the Gospels before the Crucifixion belong to the old covenant because of Heb 9:22, “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”
2. The Lord’s prayer occurred prior to the Crucifixion.
3. Therefore it is part of the old covenant.

See any problem with that logic? (One problem is the first half of Heb 9:22 that says “almost everything” but I’ll leave that for another post.) The logic is built on a weak analogy. Every book of the New Testament was written after the Crucifixion. Every word of every book was breathed out by God after the Crucifixion. So by their own definition (after the Crucifixion) every word of the Lord’s prayer was written down by an Apostle directed by the Spirit, after Pentecost. So where do the hyper-grace teachers get the authority to place these things into the old covenant?

John 1:16 &17, “For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Grace came through Jesus Christ. Forgiveness came by Jesus Christ. Hyper-grace teachers will tell you that there was no forgiveness before the cross because there was no “shedding of blood”. Well that is just not true.

Here are two New Testament examples of forgiveness without blood (pre-crucifixion).

Matt 9:2 And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”

3 And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” 4 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5 For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? 6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.”

Lu 7:47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” 50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Soapbox mode OFF.