"Your will be done" were the words of Jesus' prayer as he agonized the night before His crucifixion. Here was a prayer of our Lord in which His desire was not His own will-to have the cup taken the cup from Him-but to do the will of the One who sent Him.

Christ has sent us. And so we need to ask ourselves, "How do we pray?" Are our prayers selfish as James says, so that we do not receive, or are we seeking to pray in and for the will of God? This concerns more than our personal direction, for the Lord's Prayer calls for the will of God to be done here as in heaven where it is carried out by the angels perfectly. As with the rest of the Lord's Prayer, our prayers are not concerned primarily with ourselves but with regards to ourselves and all people, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ, as comprehended in the words "our Father."

But isn't God's will done no matter what, for He has all in His control? Yes, it certainly is. But just as He is holy without our effort to add to it, so here we are called to glorify Him by doing His perfect will. We need to remember, however, that there are certain things which have been revealed to us in the Bible and some things which have not been revealed. It is not the unrevealed will that we are praying for, but that the revealed will of God be done. Let us look at the Q124 of the Heidelberg Catechism, which reads:

What is the third petition? "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven; that is, grant that we and all men renounce our own will, and without gainsaying obey Thy will, which alone is good; so that every one may fulfill his office and calling as willingly and faithfully as the angels do in heaven."