When Jesus prayed to the Father he said, “Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” Charles Spurgeon once reflected on these words as they pertained specifically to the Christian’s responsibility toward missions and evangelism. His thoughts are worth pondering today.
“Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” Note the words “be done,” for they touch a vital point of the text. God’s will is done in heaven. How very practical! On earth his will is often forgotten, and his rule ignored. In the church of the present age there is a desire to be doing something for God, but few enquire what he wants them to do. Many things are done for the evangelizing of the people which were never commanded by the great Head of the Church, and cannot be approved of by him. Can we expect that he will accept or bless what he has never commanded? Will-worship is as sin in his sight. We are to do his will in the first place, and then to expect a blessing upon the doing of that will.
My brethren, I am afraid that Christ’s will on earth is very much more discussed than done. I have heard of brethren spending days in disputing upon a precept which their dispute was breaking. In heaven they have no disputes, but they do the will of God without discord. We are best employed when we are actually doing something for this fallen world, and for the glory of our Lord. “Your will be done”: we must come to actual works of faith and labours of love. Too often we are satisfied with having approved of that will, or with having spoken of it in words of commendation. But we must not stay in thought, resolve, or word; the prayer is practical and business-like, “Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”
An idle man stretched himself on his bed when the sun had risen high in heaven, and as he rolled over, he muttered to himself that he wished this were hard work, for he could do any quantity of it with pleasure. Many might wish that to think and to speak were to do the will of God, for then they would have accomplished it very thoroughly. In heaven there is no playing with sacred things: they do his commandments, listening to the voice of his word. Oh that his will were not only preached and sung below, but actually done as it is in heaven.
