Chiefly on Prayer

We say the Lord’s prayer every Sunday and maybe even privately throughout the week.  Within this prayer Jesus gives us layer upon layer of beautifully simple prayer.  The phrase “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” is one of those phrases who meaning is incredibly important for us to consider.  C.S. Lewis, one of the most beloved theologians, philosophers, apologists, and story tellers of the 20th century, felt this too.

I ran across a book this week I had never read by Lewis called “Letters to Malcolm: chiefly on prayer”.   Lewis is talking to Malcolm, a fictional character, about the Lord’s prayer, specifically the verse “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

He writes:

“Thy will be done.” But a great deal of it is to be done by God’s creatures; including me. The petition, then, is not merely that I may patiently suffer God’s will, but also that I may vigorously do it.  I must be an agent as well as a patient. (Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer)

In typical Lewis fashion, he says so much with so few words.  This last sentence, “I must be an agent as well as a patient”, is worthy of a closer look.

When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane and he prayed, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” he wasn’t at odds with the Father’s will.  No, he simply knew that there was suffering coming that would be excruciating. Jesus was fully God, but also fully man, and what was coming would be extraordinarily intense suffering.

Herein lies the combination Lewis speaks of ‘patient and the agent’.  There are some things we pray God would help us endure, and other things we ask God’s help in initiating as an agent of His love in the world.  Here Jesus in His perfection is doing both.

We can pray the prayer, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” in all things along with Jesus.  When circumstances are hard we are a ‘patient’ needing God’s sustainable touch. In a fallen world where death, disease, and suffering are all around us, God’s will is not thwarted, He can use these things to move us closer to Him if we allow it.

In another Lewis’ book, “The Problem of Pain”, he famously says:

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” (chapter 6)

This quote is part of his argument that God’s love is not merely an indulgent affection, but a desire for our perfection, which sometimes requires the removal of our illusions through suffering. To be clear, God doesn’t cause suffering, but allows suffering, which are the effects of this fallen world, to achieve His purposes.

On the other hand, when God gives us an assignment or a challenge to bring “His Kingdom to earth as it is in heaven”, we can walk confidently as His ‘agent’ of Love.  The Lord’s Prayer comes with both postures in mind.

Are you going through something that involves suffering?  He is there with His love to give you the strength and courage to sustain you.  By faith, lean on Him and ask Him to show you His love in the midst of the suffering.

Are you called to an action that you know is from God to be His hands and feet to others?  Then be HIS agent and move forward with the prayer on your lips, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.  When we step out in faith in God and love for others His Kingdom appears into the most broken of places on earth; even into our own brokenness.

What a privilege God has given to involve us in accomplishing his will, “on earth as it is in heaven”.

Blessings and peace,

Rev. Todd