Skip to main content

Why I called my blog 'willbedoneonearth'


I signed up to write a blog 2 years ago.  I chose the name willbedoneonearth.  And two years later I have published my first post.  That it not unlike life in general, is it?  Desires float around and we get distracted, sometimes stressed out of our brains with other things or it just feels like it must be so hard to do and what will we write anyway and how will we find the time..etc...etc...

The phrase 'will be done on earth' comes from a larger phrase out of the prayer Jesus prayed when his followers asked him 'teach us to pray'.  It's sort of a template of how to pray. 

Oftentimes in the last couple of years I didn't know what to pray I just knew I needed a whole lot of help so I would recite this prayer some mornings in my study, my nook away from the world (for at least 5 minutes!).  The prayer is short, the prayer is sweet.  It covers all the bases.  It is like a springboard for more detail as you dialogue more with God about your personal life, your loved ones, the world, your purpose in life.  It is found in Matthew 6 v 9-13.


This is what the first half of the phrases in the prayer mean to me...

Our father- God is my father, the perfect, kind, loving, fair father.  He has compassion on me his child.  He actually likes me, he delights in me. He loves to hear from me.

Who art in heaven- God my father is in heaven, he is in the unseen realm.

Hallowed be your name- We reverence, we respect, we are in awe of him.

Your kingdom come- He has a kingdom.  It is perfection.  It is ruled over by Jesus.  We who know him will share in the rulership and the delights of the kingdom and perfected souls and bodies and minds.  The kingdom is tangible, with much more to enjoy than this current earth and with perfect peace, no pain, no violence, no hunger, no injustice.  All wounds will be healed- physical and emotional.  We who know him look forward to this kingdom, awaiting Jesus return.

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven- In heaven what God says just happens- the angels and the other heavenly creatures do what is good and right.  Not so here on earth.  We can choose if we live like God would have us do each day- or not.  This section of the prayer I see as deliberately alligning myself and my will with his will, a conscious surrender.  And it's an expression of how we'd like the world to be a better place under his loving ways. What does his will on earth look like?
It looks a bit different for each person.  It could be...

Loving those in your life.
Doing good.
Caring for his creation.
Sharing his message of love.
How does that play out in your life?

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reflections on the book of Ruth: Naomi's bitterness and blessing

“...the Lords hand has gone out against me” Ruth 1 v 13  So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem.  When they arrived in Bethlehem the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, ‘Can this be Naomi?’ Don’t call me Naomi, she told them.  Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.  I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.  Why call me Naomi?  The Lord has afflicted me; the almighty has brought misfortune upon me” Ruth 1 v 19-21 Sometimes I think about seeing old friends and I think their expectations would be disappointed.  I may think of my youth, when first saved, and think how cheery and free I was- working, capable, social.  But one thing I read about Naomi’s possible musings in an article was whether she remembered the peace with God she used to enjoy in her youth…and that added to her sorrow. I feel a great deal of stress- and not a lot of peace- I look fo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lavish grace

(No, I didn't either bake or ice this cake! My daughter's birthday cake- with the image of her favorite cat!) His grace is lavish.  It is described as having been ‘lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding’ (Ephesians 1.8).  He knows what he’s doing.  Have you ever baked a cake that didn’t quite turn out as you hoped?  Cracks or craters.  Hollows.  Dryness.  Crumbling.  Over-browned.  Sunken in the middle. That is us.  We are flawed and inadequate. God applies his grace lavishly to us, as we may spread delicious buttery frosting extra-thickly over a not-so perfect cake.  The icing fills the craters and crevices and cracks, balances the dry and crumbly texture, covers over the over-cooked unsightly brown surface… Next time you are obsessing over your mistakes and weaknesses and foot-in-the-mouth moments, as I frequently do, remember Gods lavish grace, which covers over and accounts for all the things he kn...
Post a Comment
Read more

The enemy without mercy

While God has good intentions, to prosper us and not to harm us, to give us a hope and a future (Jer 29 v 11-13)", satan seeks to devour us alive, to consume us- to steal, to kill and to destroy (John 10 v 10).  To get a picture of this we just need to look at any merciless venture in the world- such as child sex trafficking- such as 'ethnic cleansing', to understand that our enemy is without mercy.  He hates us and delights in our sufferings and losses.  The detestable things on earth give him pleasure.  There is no compassion in him for a child, the elderly, the hopeless and downtrodden person.  If he can crush you, he will just want to crush you more.  Your destruction is his delight. Too many of us have a cartoon image of the devil- poking us teasingly with a plastic Halloween prodder- or a cute character on our shoulder doing a to and fro debate with us, as a cherub sits on our other shoulder. Instead, we should look to the cold blooded kille...
Post a Comment
Read more