“Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven,” is probably repeated as part of the Lord’s Prayer millions of times around the world each day. It is one of those lines in that blessed prayer that we tend to mumble our way through as a kind of ritual — an extra and obligatory attachment to a round of prayers being said in church, at family devotion, or at special ceremonies.

Even the pastor sometimes seems like he wants to get through it in a hurry with a somnolent “Letuspray”, and before you can draw your breath he has reached “for thine is the kingdom”, even as you are trying to remember what comes after “thy kingdom come”.

The trouble is we are so familiar with this prayer that we think we own it and tend to stick it into the programme when we have run out of agenda ideas as a nice way to get everybody involved or to settle the argument about whether we should include the national anthem or not.

I am not suggesting that people don’t take this prayer seriously. Far should be the opposite. This is the prayer taught to us by someone who knew best exactly what he was talking about. When Jesus Christ taught his disciples this prayer he included “thy will be done” as one of the most important requests or favours we can ask from God.

Imagine, God’s will that is being done in heaven right now, being done on Earth as well.

These thought s came to me one evening while I was listening to the evening news and wondering if I was living in a Middle East war zone or in beautiful Jamaica.

There was absolutely no evidence from the newscast on TV that night that God’s will was being done on Earth, as it is heaven. The pictures on the screen moved from one scene of war and bloodshed to others of murder, mass killings and mayhem across the globe. Then there was the Jamaican part of it where we were being forced to watch mothers bawling for their sons and daughters, raped or maimed, reports of corruption in high places, children missing, and a nation in shock.

It occurred to me that I had become too accustomed to the hastily spoken lines, and too often raced through the Lord’s Prayer in order to get to work on time, or to speed up the church service so that Parson could move on to the last hymn and the dismissal.

I realised that I was wasting the Lord’s Prayer and that we should really be putting our hearts and minds into it every day and praying earnestly for His will to be done here and around us.

I gave this so much thought that in morning devotions — when I remember to participate in them — I sometimes pause at that line and, instead of asking for thy will to be done on earth, I have the temerity to ask, thy will be done in Jamaica, then I ask for it to be done in my community, and finally in my household.

Now hold the phone, I am not preaching this Sunday morning and suggesting that you can change up the Lord’s Prayer like I have occasionally done. In fact, if my wife hears me mumbling those extra lines she stops me and chides: “Don’t change up the Lord’s Prayer like that. Just stick to the proper words.”

I sheepishly continue, but I can’t tell her that I have also, in moments of sacrilegious creative impulse, wanted to add a name or two to the part about “and deliver us from evil…” I am brought back to Earth by the fact that others have reached “forever and ever” while I am still at “for thine is the kingdom”. Perhaps the others in the room think I am being a show-off and more devout than they, taking so long and so carefully over the prayer.

By the way, if you are a show-off with your ability to put the right phrases together and you can fill up the hall with your prayer voice; remember that the Lord’s Prayer came out of his caution to his disciples. “And when you pray,” he told them, “you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: Our Father…

This prayer should remind us all of the time that God’s will, which is the perfect state of existence in any form underlined by the maxim “to love one another as I have loved you” is being done in heaven. And what he desires us to do is to ask that it be transferred down to Earth so that the justice and peace of God’s kingdom can become a reality in people’s hearts and minds.

We should be using the collective power of those millions of prayers that are going up each day to beseech Him to send us that “peace on Earth and goodwill to all men” that will help bring about his heavenly purpose on Earth.

And what a breakthrough that would be for us if His will on Earth would mean an end to the murders, the back-biting, the hatred, the dishonesty, the corruption, the noise, the shouting, and the violence that permeates our society.

The simple request to God, or the simple hope, is that His will will be done not only in Kingston, Jamaica, but all over the world: In Trump’s America as well as Kim Jong-un’s North Korea. It’s a big request to make, and would be regarded as presumptive if Jesus himself had not said it, had not allowed it, had not in a sense warned us not to take sleep mark death, because whether we like it or not, God’s will here on Earth will eventually rule.

It might seem rude and outrageous to compare one line of Jesus’s prayer with another, but surely “thy will be done on Earth, as it is in heaven”, is one of the most satisfying state of affairs that we could ever request from God.

I am convinced that “thy will be done on Earth” is the answer to the problems that the world has found itself in. The will is not being done on Earth, and so we see wars, and rumours of wars all around us. “Nations rising against nations, and kingdoms against kingdoms, and earthquakes in various places, as well as famines.”

My goodness, Jesus foretold all this, and that is why he urged us to pray it out, “When you pray, ask for His will to be done on Earth, as it is in heaven.” It does appear that it is not in man’s nature to want to take up this magnificent offer. We all need to pray more earnestly. Stop rushing through the Lord’s Prayer or using it as an afterthought when you have run out of prayers to say. Jesus said when you pray say this: “Our Father…”

He was serious about it. And so should we be.

Lance Neita is a public and community relations consultant and writer. Send comments to the Observer or lanceneita@hotmail.com.