The Azusa Weekly

June 22, 2025

Vol. 7, Issue 8 (Summer 2025)

Jesus taught us to pray:

Our Father in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

Your Kingdom come.

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

(Matt. 6:9-10)

We must pray for His will to be done. God’s will is what He wants, how He wants it, and when He wants it. How many times do we end up realizing that what we wanted wasn’t what He wanted? Praying “Your will be done” is recognizing that “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are [His] ways higher than [our] ways, and [His] thoughts than [our] thoughts” (Is. 55:9).

Our prayers have to go beyond what we want. We must learn to want what God wants. That’s what prayer does to us. It bends our will to fit God’s. Prayer is not about me changing God, but it’s about Him changing me. When we pray, we discover His ways and His thoughts, and then we can align ourselves with Him.

In Gethsemane, Jesus, knowing all the pain that awaited Him on the cross, prayed this prayer, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done” (Lk‬ ‭22:42‬). In His humanity, Jesus didn’t want the pain and suffering, but He wanted His Father’s will to be done most. 

We have to want His will to be done most. I think it takes practice. We must practice consistently aligning ourselves with His will. The more I pray, read the Bible, and allow the Spirit to deal with me, the more I keep choosing what He wants over what I want. And the more I choose what He wants, my own desires start to change. I start wanting what He wants.

Jesus said to pray that His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. How is His will done in heaven? Well, God always gets the glory in Heaven. In Heaven, He is praised and worshipped. Heaven is filled with his presence. Heaven accepts God’s rule over everything. So, our desire has to be for that to be done on earth. One day there really will be Heaven on Earth. But for now, His will can be done in and through our lives as we seek to bring Him glory, invite His will to be done, live in His presence, and share Heaven with others. 

Praying “Your will be done” isn’t about everything in life being perfect or about living in fear over every little thing being the right thing. It’s about discovering what God wants and then aligning ourselves with His will in our prayers and decisions. It’s about wanting what He wants more than what we want.

1 John 5:14 says, “If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” And Jesus promised in John 14:13-14, “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.“

~ Cooper