Describe a time when you sought to know God’s will about a particular decision or situation. Did you, or how did you, arrive at an answer?
Two biblical narratives, one from the OT and the other from the NT, provide some further insight about what it means to pray “thy will be done.” The first is the story of Joseph, the son of Jacob (Genesis 37-50). Through a series of
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events, Joseph is betrayed by his brothers and is imprisoned in Egypt. However, through time he is able to gain favor with Pharaoh, save Egypt from famine, and reconcile with his family. Read Genesis 50:20-21. How does this passage influence your notion of God’s will in the presence of evil and suffering? What’s the difference between what Joseph says and the popular cliché: “Everything happens for a reason”? ! ! The second story about God’s will comes from the end of Matthew’s Gospel. There we find Jesus at prayer in the garden of Gethsemane on the very night he would be betrayed by his friends. In anguish, he prays, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want” (26:39). In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus shows us what it looks like to desire a good thing – his own life! – and yet to live into God’s will instead. ! In asking for God’s will to be done, we must learn to set aside our own will in the process. Our wills must be slowly replaced by our willingness to step into God’s will. What is an example of this in your own life? Where have you had to lay your own will aside in order to step into God’s will? !
INTRODUCTION After the opening address to God, the Lord’s prayer does not immediately move into a series of petitions about human needs. Rather, the prayer starts with its focus squarely on God – God’s name, God’s kingdom, and God’s will. In arranging the prayer in this fashion, Jesus is teaching the disciples, and us, that prayer is not primarily about getting what we want but about shaping our wants in light of God’s wants for the world. In praying for God’s name to be hallowed, God’s kingdom to come, and God’s will to be done, we are asking for things that are not so easy to understand. What does it look like to honor God’s name through our words and actions? In a time when politics threatens to divide us more than ever before, what does it mean to pray for God’s kingdom to come? How do we make sense of the hope for God’s will to be done in the midst of a world that often feels so secular? In this study, we will begin to explore these and other questions about the three Godcentered petitions found in the first half of the Lord’s Prayer. Do you prefer praying in a spontaneous, free-form way or with set language like the Lord’s Prayer? What are some advantages of each type of prayer?