Now the Will of God Is....

Now the will of God is what Christ both did and taught:

• Humility in conversation
• steadfastness in faith
• modesty in words
• justice in deeds
• mercifulness in works
• discipline in morals
• to be unable to do a wrong
  and to be able to bear a wrong when done
• to keep peace with the brethren
• to love God with all one’s heart
• to love Him because He is a Father
• to fear Him because He is God
• to prefer nothing whatever to Christ
  because He did not prefer anything to us
• to adhere inseparably to His love
• to stand by His cross bravely and faithfully
• when there is any challenge on behalf of His name and honor
  to exhibit in our speech a consistent confession
• in torture, that confidence with which we do battle
• in death, that patience whereby we are crowned.

This is the desire to be fellow-heirs with Christ.

This is to do the commandment of God.

This is to fulfill the will of the Father.

- Cyprian, The Treatises of Cyprian: On the Lord’s Prayer, 15 [Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5], adapted

HT: Trevin Wax

Using the Family Prayer

"Let us pray as God our master has taught us. When we approach the Father with the words his Son has given us, and let him hear the prayer of Christ repeated with our own voices, we recite a family prayer. Let the Father recognize the words of his Son. Let the Son, who lives in our hearts, be spoken from our lips. He is our advocate before the Father; when we ask for forgiveness for our sins, why not use the words given to us by our advocate. He tells us: 'Whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will give you' (John 16:23) What could be a more effective prayer than the words of Christ's own prayer?"

- Cyprian of Carthage (3rd Century AD)

Awakening Faith, page 5