Why (should we/do we) pray that God's will be done? Won't it happen anyway? How does praying God's will be done make a difference?
We all pray in the Our Father, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Jesus Himself taught us to pray that way (Mt 6:10). Jesus also prayed in His agony in the garden that the Father’s will be done (Mt 26:39, 42). The example of Jesus is in itself reason enough to do imitate Him. But your question does arise because if God is all-powerful and God wills something, then won’t it happen? How does our prayer make a difference?
Well, as I see it, God’s will is always good, and God does wants good things for us. The problem is not with God, not that we need to pray to change His mind or convince Him to do something. Instead, the “problem” is with us. Our will is not always God’s will. We are not always open to God’s will. We or the people we are praying for are not always willing or ready to accept what God wants to give. Prayer is for us and our benefit, and the primary benefit of prayer is that it changes us! Thy will be done in us. However, I have also heard it taught, that God wills many things for us, but God also wills that we come to Him and ask for these gifts. Kind of like the grandparent who loves to spoil their grandchildren, but only when they come and ask for candy or cookies or whatever. We need to ask. We won’t receive if don’t.
Let me quote a far better authority on this than myself, one of the greatest saints and thinkers of the Church, St. Augustine, who wrote a letter about prayer to Proba (in the early fifth century). He wrote:
“When we say: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we are asking him to make us obedient so that his will may be done in us as it is done in heaven by his angels.”
“Why he should ask us to pray, when he knows what we need before we ask him, may perplex us if we do not realize that our Lord and God does not want to know what we want (for he cannot fail to know it) but wants us rather to exercise our desire through our prayers, so that we may be able to receive what he is preparing to give us. His gift is very great indeed, but our capacity is too small and limited to receive it.”
God’s will is to give us free choice, and it is our choice whether to pray or not. So let us pray and exercise our desire and thus strengthen and expand our hearts so that we may be able to let God’s will be done in us! Our prayer does make a difference.
-Fr. Greg
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