Thy will be done
Question 103 answers that in the third petition we pray that God, by his grace, would make us able and willing to know, obey and submit to his will in all things, as the angels do in heaven: to obey the will he has revealed in his Word, and to submit to the will he works out in his providence.
This week's questions
What do we pray for in the third petition? In the third petition, which is, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven, we pray, that God, by his grace, would make us able and willing to know, obey, and submit to his will in all things, as the angels do in heaven.
Question 103
After God's name and kingdom last week, the third petition is the last of the three that ask for what is God's. Next week the prayer turns to our own needs.
Able and willing
Question 103 does not look for the strength to do God's will in us; it asks for it "by his grace". Sometimes we do not know God's will, but more often we know it and do not want it. In this petition, says the Larger Catechism, we acknowledge "that by nature we and all men are not only utterly unable and unwilling to know and do the will of God" but prone to murmur against his providence Larger Catechism, Q. 192. So the psalmist asks God to turn the heart itself:
Turn my heart to Your testimonies and not to covetous gain.
Psalm 119:36
Paul agrees: "it is God who works in you to will and to act on behalf of His good purpose" (Philippians 2:13).
The answer's three verbs, know, obey and submit, look at God's will from two sides. One is the will he has revealed: "the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law" (Deuteronomy 29:29). That will we learn and obey (Romans 12:2). The other is the will he works out in his providence. Job, on the day he lost everything, said, "The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD" (Job 1:21). David, driven from Jerusalem by Absalom, left himself in God's hands: "let Him do to me whatever seems good to Him" (2 Samuel 15:26). That will we submit to.
Not my will, but yours
No one has prayed this petition as deeply as Jesus. Its proof text takes us to Gethsemane:
Going a little farther, He fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.”
Matthew 26:39
The second time he prayed in the petition's own words: "may Your will be done" (Matthew 26:42). Matthew Henry, the English minister, draws the contrast with Eden: "He who made atonement for the sins of mankind, submitted himself in a garden of suffering, to the will of God, from which man had revolted in a garden of pleasure" Matthew Henry.
Submission is not resignation. Jesus first asked plainly that the cup might pass. Augustine, bishop of Hippo in North Africa, hears the Lord saying to us in that prayer, "Man, behold thyself in Me, that thou canst will somewhat apart of thyself, and though God’s will is other, this is permitted to human frailty" Augustine. The psalmist asks "How long, O LORD?" again and again before he trusts and sings (Psalm 13). To bring our sorrow to God without hiding it, and then to leave it with him, is this petition. See Through temptation and trouble.
"As the angels do in heaven" recalls the psalm's angels, "mighty in strength who carry out His word" (Psalm 103:20-21). The Larger Catechism asks that we do God's will "with the like humility, cheerfulness, faithfulness, diligence, zeal, sincerity, and constancy, as the angels do in heaven" Q. 192, and the Heidelberg Catechism brings that obedience into our daily work:
Grant that we and all men may renounce our own will, and yield ourselves, without gainsaying, to thy will, which alone is good; that so every one may fulfill his office and calling as willingly and truly as the angels do in heaven.
Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 124
The kitchen, the office and the classroom are places to do that will; see Vocation: every sphere of life. Martin Luther's Small Catechism, taught in the Lutheran churches, adds that God's good and gracious will "is done indeed without our prayer; but we pray in this petition that it may be done among us also" Small Catechism, the third petition. Whether God also guides us beyond Scripture, by an inner leading or by prophecy, is a question on which Christians differ; How can I know God's will? takes it up.
To ponder this week
Where are you praying "my will be done" this week, and can you pray Jesus' "not as I will" there? Do not hide what you want; tell God plainly first. Then add one sentence that leaves the matter in your Father's hands, and pray it each day.
Practice
- Practice 1 of 6
According to Question 103, what do we pray for in the third petition?
- Practice 2 of 6
Why does the petition ask God to make us not only able but willing, according to the Larger Catechism?
- Practice 3 of 6
Which proof text of Question 103 shows Jesus asking that not his will but the Father's be done?
- Practice 4 of 6
What does the Heidelberg Catechism (Q. 124) ask for in the third petition?
- Practice 5 of 6
Which is closest to what this lesson says about submitting to God's will?
- Practice 6 of 6
What does Deuteronomy 29:29 teach about God's will?
Reading to the end marks it read; tap to switch it.
Related topics
Lessons from the Bible, the church's creeds, the Westminster Shorter Catechism and the Reformed confessions, the Fathers and classic commentary. They teach the Catechism as the Reformed churches' own, a week at a time, and present both sides where the Reformed differ, and other traditions' views, fairly. Scripture quotations: BSB.