Host’s Choice Prayer (The Lord’s Prayer, Part 4)

Matthew 6:10

In a previous job I and some of my colleagues were dinner guests of another one of our suppliers. He was from the country of Armenia which meant he loved food, particularly Greek food. And we were his guests, in his town, but he couldn’t be there when we first arrived.

And so he lined up for us to have dinner at his favorite Greek restaurant. He couldn’t be there as dinner started but he had spoken to the chef and assured the chef that he should provide for us and our dinner everything that he himself would order for his family.

So when we got to dinner there were no menus. We didn’t look at what we wanted to eat and order this and not order that, it was host’s choice. It was very gracious of him, but I have to admit I was a little nervous. I think maybe other people would be left nervous too. I had no control over what I was going to have for dinner. Not one bit of it had to do with what I wanted or what I thought was best or was going to be most pleasing for me.

Host’s choice.

When Jesus teaches us to pray the prayer he has given his church, one of the prayers inside that larger prayer is a host’s choice prayer. That prayer sounds like this: Lord Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10)

When we pray that prayer the pride and presumption that exists in you and me, it has to die, because me and what I think is best or what I want for my life is completely left aside. And we are instead cause to recline our very beings, our souls and our bodies, entirely into our host. And in what he knows is good and best for us.

That might sound scary until we are given to remember that this is the one who did not keep for himself. His most prized and loved possession: his own Son, but gave that one into death for you and for me. And that kind of sacrifice will make us bold and confident to pray as our Lord has given us to pray:

Lord, Thy Will Be Done. Amen.

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