THE WILL OF GOD

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

The will of God is the living power to which the world owes its existence. Through that will and according to that will, the world is what it is.

The world is the manifestation or embodiment of that divine will in its wisdom, power, and goodness. The world has, in beauty and glory, only what God has willed it to have. As His will formed the world, so His will upholds it every day. Creation does what it was destined for: it shows forth the glory of God. "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created" (Revelation 4:11).

The divine will undertook the creation of a human will in His own image and likeness with the living power to know and cooperate with that will to which it owed its being. The unfallen angels consider it their highest honor and happiness to be able to will and do exactly what God wills and does. The glory of heaven is that God's will is done there. The sin and misery of fallen angels and men consist simply in their having turned away from and refused to do the will of God.

Restoring God's Will

Redemption is the restoration of God's will to its place in the world. To this end, Christ came and showed, in a human life, how man has but one thing to live for: to do the will of God. He showed us how there was one way of conquering self will—by a death to it, in obeying God's will even unto death. So He atoned for our self-will, conquered it for us, and opened a path through death and resurrection into a life entirely united to the will of God.

God's redeeming will is now able to do in fallen men what His creating will had done in nature. In Christ and His example, God has revealed the devotion to and the delight in His will, which He asks and expects of us. In Christ and His Spirit, He renews and takes possession of our will. He works in it to make us able and willing to do all His will.

He Himself works all things after the counsel of His will. To "make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight" (Hebrews 13:21). As this is revealed by the Holy Spirit, believed and received into the heart, we begin to acquire an insight into the prayer, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Then the true desire is awakened in us or the life it promises.

It is essential to the believer that he realize his relationship to God's will and its claim on him. Many believers have no conception of what their faith or their feeling ought to be in regard to the will of God. How few say: My desire is to be in complete harmony with the will of God. I feel my one need is to maintain my surrender, to do what God wills me to do. By God's grace, every hour of my life can be lived in the will of God-doing His will as it is done in heaven.

Doing God's Will

As the divine will works out its purposes in us and masters the heart, we will have the courage to believe in the answer to the prayer our Lord taught us. Through Jesus Christ, this working of God's will in us is carried out. It is close union to Him that gives the confidence that God will work everything in us. It is only this confidence in God, through Jesus Christ, that will assure us that we can do our part, and that our will on earth can correspond and cooperate with the will of God.

Let this be the one thing our heart desires— that in everything the will of God be done in us and by us, as it is done in heaven. The will of man cannot be disconnected from its living union with the Father here, nor the living presence of the Son. It is only by divine guidance, given through the Holy Spirit, that the will of God in its beauty and application to daily life can be truly known. This teaching will be given, not to the wise and prudent, but to those with a childlike attitude who are willing to wait for and depend on what is given them. Divine guidance will lead in the path of God's will.

Let this be the one thing our heart desires— that in everything the will of God be done in us and by us, as it is done in heaven. The will of man cannot be disconnected from its living union with the Father here, nor the living presence of the Son. It is only by divine guidance, given through the Holy Spirit, that the will of God in its beauty and application to daily life can be truly known. This teaching will be given, not to the wise and prudent, but to those with a childlike attitude who are willing to wait for and depend on what is given them. Divine guidance will lead in the path of God's will.