Day 12 - God's Will and Ours

Day 12 of Andrew Murray's The Secret of Intercession poses the following question: Why must all our prayers of intercession be based on Christ's prayer, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10)?

Murray lays out the answer to this in a few short pages, but we get the answer in the first paragraph: "When He made man in His image, it was, above all, that man's desires were to be in perfect accord with the desires of God" .... "in the human flesh man was to be the embodiment and fulfillment of God's desires" (48).

In short order, Murray tells us that man's fall set God in doing "the great work of winning man back to make the desires of God his own" so that man could once again be in perfect accord with God (48).

Through Christ, that opportunity for perfect accord is at hand. "The Son, as man, said in agony and blood, 'Thy will be done,' and made the surrender even to the point of being forsaken by God. He did this so that the power that had deceived man might be conquered and deliverance procured" (49).

As followers... and as intercessors... "the great work of appropriating that redemption is this: that believers have to say, first of all for themselves and then in lives devoted to intercession for others, 'Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven' (Matt 6:10)" (49).

What some of us often find... and I'll be truthful... what I often find is that it's not hard to say Thy will be done for others. We pray for healing. We pray for increase for others, but we know that in the end, it is God's will that will be done. Now, when we move that will onto us, it can get a little scary because we truly have to realize that it's not about us. It's not our will that does anything. We surrender ourselves, we petition for ourselves and others, and God's will shall be done. For some, there is much peace, rest, and comfort found in that. For others, the fear of what will God's will be? lingers.

I think it's important that we step back to the beginning, seeing that 1) God made us in his image (and he is perfect -- shouldn't we be absolutely thrilled to be made in his image!?) and 2) because we are made in his image, we have a responsibility to set our desires right with him and his will.



Other Posts in The Secret of Intercession series

1. "Kickstarting Intercession"
2. "Day 1 - Intercession"
3. "Day 2 - The Opening of the Eyes"
4. "Day 3 - Man's Place in God's Plan"
5. "Day 4 - Intercession in the Plan of Redemption"
6. "Day 5 - God Seeks Intercessors"
7. "Day 6 - Christ as Intercessor"
8. "Day 7 - The Intercessors God Seeks"
9. "Day 8 - The School of Intercession"
10. "Day 9 - The Power in the Name of Jesus"
11. "Day 10 - Prayer, the Work of the Spirit"
12. "Day 11 - Christ, Our Example in Intercession"