You’ll receive a monthly email with new resources, updates, event information and other curated content to help you live a life where the faith you profess and the law you practise are integrally connected. (Do note: We too hate spam and take your privacy extremely seriously. Please see our Privacy Policy to understand how we use and protect your data).
Prayer is at the heart of our relationship with God. Jesus taught his disciples the Lord’s Prayer to show us how our prayers should be concerned about God’s glory, our needs and our relationships with others.
“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” Matthew 6:10
The Lord’s Prayer is оne of the most famous Bible passages. Many songs, books, and sermons have been written about this prayer. Probably most of you know it by heart. But today I want us to reflect on this part of the prayer only, the part where we ask God for his kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. We all want that right? Imagine God’s kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven. Imagine God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That would be really nice, but it is not happening at the moment.
However, I think it’s useful to view this passage from a different perspective. Sometimes, when we say this prayer, we are saying it passionately, but passively. By that, I mean that we want to see God’s kingdom come and his will to be done here on earth, but we fall into the trap of thinking that for now all we have to do is ask for God’s kingdom to come, and just to sit and wait for it. Because, God is the one who should bring his kingdom on this earth, right? Not us!
But what if the point of this prayer is not just to tell us that God’s kingdom will fully come on this earth someday? What if the point of this prayer is not just to tell us that we need to long for God’s kingdom but that God wants to give this world a foretaste of that reality, through his followers (you and me) here and now? What if we can be the vessels through which God will give a foretaste of his kingdom in our families, workplaces, businesses, relationships, neighborhoods, etc.? Now, bringing God’s kingdom and doing his will in these different areas of life can mean many things, and I will not go into the details of those. But generally speaking, we can’t hope to give others a foretaste of what God’s kingdom is like, without living in the light of the Gospel.
I believe God wants us to view this part of the prayer not just as something we ask from him or just as something we hope he will do in the future, but also as something he wants to do through us today, at least partially. Longing for God’s kingdom shouldn’t be just a desire for something that will happen in the future, but it should affect the way we live our lives, do our jobs, lead our businesses, treat people around us, etc. I believe God wants us to keep praying this prayer, but also to start looking for opportunities through which he can bring his kingdom and his will in other people’s lives through us. May with his strength and guidance we live our lives in that way and be, as one author puts it, kingdomizers.
You’ll receive a monthly email with new resources, updates, event information and other curated content to help you live a life where the faith you profess and the law you practise are integrally connected. (Do note: We too hate spam and take your privacy extremely seriously. Please see our Privacy Policy to understand how we use and protect your data).
