Page 30 - The Importance of Prayer Student Textbook

Study Section 5: Praying the Lord’s Prayer - continued

5.1 Connect

When you think about it, the Lord’s prayer, even though quoted by Jesus, was actually a prayer
that was for his disciples. In Luke 11, the disciples came to Jesus and asked the Lord to teach
them to pray. Jesus’s response was to quote “the Lord’s prayer.” So, in actuality, the Lord’s
prayer is a design for the disciples to pray. It is really the disciples prayer pattern. That’s why
we can take what the Lord told us to pray and return it to Him. As disciples of Christ, we can
learn from what the Lord taught his disciples about this important prayer. Let’s learn more about it…

5.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to fully explain what the will of God is and realize that He truly wants
to give you the desires of your heart.

2. The student should be able to explain what thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory
means for other learners.

5.3 Thy Kingdom Come

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

How do theologians define the will of God? God’s will is that attribute of God whereby He
approves and determines to bring about every action necessary for the existence and activity of
Himself and all of creation. God’s will has to do with deciding and approving the things that God
is and does. It concerns God’s choices of what to do and what not to do. God cannot choose to be
different than He is or to cease to exist. He says, “I Am Who I Am”
or, I Will Be What I Will Be”. (Exodus 3:14) With this in mind God’s
will is said to be both necessary and free. It is necessary with
respect to Himself; it is free over against creation. God cannot
deny Himself and must act consistently with His own nature. This
should bring a great calm to mankind. However, we as created
beings do not act consistently within the will of God. It is beyond
the scope of this book to elaborate more on this matter but
suffice it to say that we are taught to pray that our wills become
aligned with the will of God.

Within the will of God, we can find a secret will and a revealed
will. The secret things belong to the Lord our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to
our children forever, that we may do all the words of His law. (Deuteronomy 29:29) Those things that
God has revealed are given for the purpose of obeying all of God’s will: “that we may do all the words of
this law”. There are many aspects of His plans that are not revealed but with regards to these matters
we are simply to trust Him. For example, Joseph said to his brothers, “as for you, you meant evil against

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