Jacob’s Struggle 3 by Mardie Rees

Matthew 6:10
Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven

True love always involves choice. God gives us free will, yet invites us to submit to divine leadership and authority. Many of us struggle with this choice, wanting what we want, wanting to make our way in our own strength, yet needing the companionship, blessing and salvation of God. Mardie Rees captures this conflict in her work Jacob’s Struggle, based on the story of Jacob wrestling with God in Genesis 32:24-30. Jacob is divided. He looks up to God with an open hand of acceptance, yet his other hand is still clenched in a fist, grasping for control.

What do we mean when we pray, “Thy will be done?” Are we asking God to make us a mindless puppet? No. We are accepting the invitation to walk with God and be a part of God’s plan to save the world. We are saying, “God help me to know your will, trust your will, and do your will. Help me to want what you want.” We are never forced to make this decision. We do this willingly and joyfully because we trust God is good and is working all things together for good. We trust God can see hearts and situations and consequences far better than we can. We trust that God’s plan of hope and healing will never be diminished nor defeated. – Lisa <><

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It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. – JK Rowling

The loftiest privilege of human life is to do the will of God. – George W. Truett

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, “All right, then, have it your way.” – CS Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God’s will. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The everyday Jewish prayers of praise familiar to Jesus’ hearers begin, “Blessed is the Lord our God, Ruler of the universe,” or, “Sovereign of the universe.” Each time they pray, observant Jews name God as the one who is in charge. Contrast that with our individualistic attitudes: “A man’s home is his castle”; “I am the master of my fate”; “Look out for number one”; “What I do is no one’s business but my own.” We will be subject to no one. That is a foregone conclusion in the United States. We don’t even want a federal government that legislates behaviors — at least not behaviors that we don’t agree with.
– Mary Lou Redding, The Lord’s Prayer: Jesus Teaches Us How to Pray

Stonewall Jackson, the great Christian soldier wounded accidentally by one of his own men, dying at the battle of Chancellorsville, said, “If I live, it will be for the best; if I die, it will be for the best. God knows and directs all things for the best for His Children. God’s will be done.”

Romans 8:28
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

O Lord, how wholesome and grand a thing it is to be willing towards Thee. I am willing, eagerly willing for Thy will to be done, and I feel all deeply joyful at the prospect for nothing can be so glorious as just Thy will. – Oswald Chambers, Knocking at God’s Door

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