Now if you are saying, as some people do, "But how can I know that God is willing to answer my requests for life's necessities?" the answer is that Jesus Himself taught that God was willing. In fact, He taught it in the very next chapter of the Sermon on the Mount in a passage that is actually the best possible commentary on this petition in the Lord's Prayer.

We are never so bold in prayer as when we can look into the face of God and say, "My Father, I do not pray for myself in this thing and I do not want my will done. I want Thy name to be glorified. Glorify it now in my situation, in my life, and do it in such a way that all men will know it is of Thee. Amen.”

Last week, in talking about God’s kingdom, I asked the question, "What is God doing in this age?" I answered that God was taking persons of every imaginable condition, and from every part of this globe, and turning them into men and women like Jesus Christ, in other words, into men and women to whom God's kingdom comes. In the light of this week's discussion, we can see that it would also be possible to say the same thing in this way. We could say that God is taking persons with sinful and rebellious wills from every imaginable condition of life, and from every part of this globe, and then by means of the new life that He gives them freely through the Holy Spirit, bringing their wills into perfect conformity to His own.

The third petition of the Lord's Prayer asks that the will of God might be done in earth, as it is in heaven. This request is an important one, for the only things we can properly pray for as Christians are things that are in God's will. No Christian can pray, “Lord, I am about to commit adultery, and I want you to keep me from getting caught so I can get away with it." No Christian can pray, “Lord, help me to cheat on my income tax and be clever enough to outwit the computer." No Christian can pray, “Lord, make me smart enough to cheat my partner on this deal." No Christian can ask the Lord to help him lie convincingly. A Christian simply cannot pray this way. A Christian must always pray, "Thy will be done in my life, as it is in heaven.” 

The first parable of the kingdom is the parable of the sower. Jesus said that a man went out to sow seed. It happened that some of it fell on a hard surface where it was devoured by birds; some of it fell in shallow ground and sprang up quickly only to be scorched by the sun; some fell among thorns and was choked by them; and some fell on good ground where it produced in some cases a hundred handfuls of grain for one handful, in others sixty for one, and in still others thirty for one.