Luke 11:2 And he said to them, When you pray, say, Our Father which are in heaven, Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done… If a man lay a crooked stick upon an even level ground, the stick and ground ill suit together, but the fault is in the stick; and in such a case, a man must not strive to bring the even ground to the crooked stick, but bow the crooked stick even with the ground. So is it between God's will and ours; there is a discrepancy and jarring betwixt them; but where is the fault? or rather, where is it not? not in the will of God, but in our crooked and corrupt affections; in which case we must not like Balaam seek to bring God's will to ours, but be contented to rectify and order the crookedness of our wills by the rectitude and sanctity of the will of God, which must be the ruler and moderator of our wills; for which cause we are to cry out with David, "Teach me, O Lord, to do Thy will"; and with the whole Church of God, in that pattern of wholesome words, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven"; never forgetting that, too, of Christ Jesus Himself in the midst of His agony and bloody sweat, "Father, not My will, but Thine be done" (Luke 22:42). ( Augustine.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. |
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