Day 8 - As It Is in Heaven

Name:  Portia Hopkins (Faculty Member)

Scripture: “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)

Reflections:

One day when I was praying the Lord’s Prayer, I was caught by the phrase that follows “thy will be done.”  We don’t just ask that God’s will be done, but that it be done on earth in the same way that it is done in heaven.

When I pray the Lord’s Prayer, I regard each phrase as promise to do my best to live up to its lofty ideals.  So what might it mean for me to commit to God’s will being done here in the same manner that it is done in heaven?

Well, in heaven we all will live without being bounded by our fears, without being enslaved by our faults.  We will have perfect openness and transparency and trust.  We will be able to love with abandon.  So I  wonder, what would it be like to live on earth as though I were in heaven already?

What might happen if I stopped fearing?  If I stopped hiding?  If I stopped trying to maintain an illusion of control? If I started loving with abandon, without paying attention to the personal cost? What might happen if I stopped living as though I’m on earth, and started living as though I’m in heaven?  Would God’s will then be done in me, and through me?

Prayer for the Day:

Our Father, who art in heaven: In this season of remembrance of the sacrifice of thy son, may thy kingdom come and thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Have mercy on me as I commit to living on earth with the freedom and abandon that will be mine in heaven.