Lesson 3: A – Agreement

“Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Agreeing with God that His kingdom is far more important than all the dreams or hopes we have for our own life in this world is the level of agreement in view here. It is seeing everything in this world as secondary to anything God wants.

Here are two Biblical examples of this kind of agreement. The first is Jeremiah. He was just a young man when God called him to serve Himself as a prophet (Jeremiah 1:6). None of us would call Jeremiah’s life an easy one: called a liar, put in a dungeon, forced to walk around town naked, kidnapped and taken to a foreign land against God’s stated will, and finally murdered. The message God asked Jeremiah to give to his people was not a pleasant message: they would be defeated in war and taken captive to another country. And when the people of Israel looked for alternatives to the judgment God warned through Jeremiah, God told Jeremiah to warn them their lives would be worse than His judgment if they tried other ways.


The second person is Jesus Himself as He faced death on the cross. Though He had set His face toward Jerusalem, knowing full well His time would come to die there (Luke 9:51), He did not shrink from it. In fact, on the night He was arrested, when Peter tried to defend Him with a sword, Jesus told him to put it away. He even told Pilate that if His kingdom were of this world then His followers would have defended Him. Yet, alone in the Garden of Gethsemane, He cried to God to “let this cup pass” from Him that He was about to endure. He struggled so hard against temptation that He began sweating blood, a sign that His human body was breaking down under the tremendous pressure. Even in the face of this great distress, Jesus remained steadfast on His path of agreement with God His Father. His words, “Not My will, but Yours be done,” should be ours to echo when we face battle between our will and God’s.

How do we know what God’s will is for our lives or our ministry? We must seek it in the Bible and in prayer. As we read His word, He will bring things to our minds that we can do for Him. One teacher has said that we need to look around us to see where God is working, and join that work. Do you see a friend discouraged? Cheer them up with the hope and joy that comes from knowing Jesus. Do you see God working through a church where people are being saved? Join that church and enter into the work there. Does your family need to know Jesus? Let Jesus live His love and joy and peace through you in your family – and always be prepared to give an answer to their questions about why you care or seem different than they expect you to be.

*Where is God showing you a place you can work for Him?