DEVOTION//How to start a battle with Satan

We are inviting a fight whenever we pray, “Father, I want your will to be done in my life.”

Martin Luther warned about the spiritual battle that petition launches when he commented on the Third Petition of the Lord's Prayer in his Large Catechism. He did not intend that his warning would stop us from praying, “Your will be done.” Giving ourselves over to our Father’s guidance of our lives flows logically and willingly from trusting his grace in Jesus to have adopted us into his family. Rather Luther warns us so we are prepared to counterattack when Satan, the world we live in, and our sinful self pushback against our prayer.

“Your will be done” rankles Satan

Luther writes:

The devil… cannot allow anyone to teach or to believe rightly. It hurts him beyond measure to have his lies and abominations exposed….. It hurts him when he himself is disgraced, is driven out of the heart, and has to let a breach be made in his kingdom. Therefore, he chafes and rages as a fierce enemy with all his power and might. He marshals all his subjects and, in addition, enlists the world and our own flesh as his allies.

Our flesh is in itself lazy and inclined to evil (Romans 7:18), even though we have accepted and believe God’s Word. The world, however, is perverse and wicked. So he provokes the world against us, fans and stirs the fire, so that he may hinder and drive us back, cause us to fall, and again bring us under his power (2 Corinthians 2:11; 1 Timothy 3:6–7).

Such is all his will, mind, and thought. He strives for this day and night and never rests a moment. He uses all arts, wiles, ways, and means that he can invent.

“Your will be done” calls us to battle

If we would be Christians, therefore, we must surely expect and count on having the devil with all his angels and the world as our enemies (Matthew 25:41; Revelation 12:9). They will bring every possible misfortune and grief upon us. For where God’s Word is preached, accepted, or believed and produces fruit, there the holy cross cannot be missing (Acts 14:22).

[When “your will be done” is prayed.] let no one think that he shall have peace (Matthew 10:34). He must risk whatever he has upon earth (such as) possessions, honor, house and estate, wife and children, body and life.

This [prayer] hurts our flesh and the old Adam (Ephesians 4:22). The test is to be steadfast and to suffer with patience (James 5:7–8) in whatever way we are assaulted, and to let go whatever is taken from us (1 Peter 2:20–21).

So there is just as great a need, as in all the other petitions, that we pray without ceasing, “Dear Father, your will be done, not the devil’s will or our enemies’ or anything that would persecute and suppress your holy Word or hinder your kingdom. Grant that we may bear with patience and overcome whatever is to be endured because of your Word and kingdom, so that our poor flesh may not yield or fall away because of weakness or sluggishness.”