The Lord's Prayer - Part 2

Your Kingdom Come…

Yesterday, we began an exploration of the prayer Jesus taught his disciples. He told them:

"This, then, is how you should pray: 

"Our Father in heaven, 

   hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, 

   your will be done, 

   on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,

   as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

   but deliver us from the evil one."

                             - Matthew 6:9-13

Our goal is not simply to memorize the words of this prayer, but rather to understand the heart behind it. As we saw yesterday, Jesus began his prayer by grounding it in two crucial aspects of God’s character: He is our Heavenly Father who loves us, but He is also the Holy Creator and Owner of this universe who stands above our momentary trials and is not overwhelmed by them.

After rooting his prayer in a recognition of who we’re talking to, Jesus continues with these words:

Your kingdom come, 

   your will be done, 

   on earth as it is in heaven.

Now, before we can ask ourselves what God’s kingdom is like, we should first define what a kingdom is. In his book The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard explains that “a kingdom is anywhere that the sovereign’s will is done.” In other words, a kingdom is the sphere of influence where the sovereign ruler has his or her way. So if the king were to say, “Blue is my favorite color, so I want everyone to paint their houses blue,” then you’d have a pretty good idea where the boundaries of his kingdom are based off of where the blue houses stopped.

A kingdom is a place where the sovereign ruler’s will is carried out. 

So that means the Kingdom of God is wherever God’s will is done.

When you think about it that way, the statement, “Your kingdom come, your will be done” is a little redundant. If God’s kingdom truly breaks into our reality, then His will really will be done here just as it’s done in heaven.

But how does this happen? How does God’s will get done here on earth? Through the citizens of His kingdom. Of course, this raises another question: who is a citizen of God’s kingdom? According to our definition, a citizen of God’s kingdom would be anyone who willingly chooses to do God’s will.

The first and greatest example of this is Jesus himself. When crowds began to follow him and started talking about making him king of Israel, Jesus declared, “I have come down from heaven not to do my will, but to do the will of him who sent me.” (John 6:38) And He was the first person in history who faithfully did God’s will, even when it cost him. 

This is nowhere better illustrated than on the night before he was crucified for our sins. Keep in mind, he wasn’t looking forward to the cross. He wasn’t a masochist who liked pain. As he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, he cried, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup [of suffering] from me.”  I suspect I would have done the same thing. But he didn’t stop with that plea. He continued, “yet not my will, but yours be done.” Even in the face of unbearable suffering, he was willing to carry out the will of His father.

Similarly, if we choose to submit to God’s rule in our life, if we choose to live in accordance to His heart as revealed in scripture, and submit to the still, small voice of His Holy Spirit, then we truly are citizens of His Kingdom here on earth.

The truth of this perspective is backed up a little later in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus warns his listeners, “Not everyone who calls me Lord will enter the kingdom, but only those who do the will of my father in Heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) In other words, if you claim to trust God and follow Him, then you’ll actually submit your desires to His. You will be willing to model your life off of his and obey the nudging of God’s Spirit within you. Otherwise, it’s just lip-service. And there were plenty of people who paid lip-service to God without backing it up with their actions. That’s why both the Father and Jesus lamented about people who “honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8)

But how does this apply to prayer? Well, even in our prayers, as children of God and citizens of His kingdom living in this world, our greatest desire should be to see His will done and His kingdom advance. And if our desires conflict with what God wants, then it is His will that should take precedence in our hearts. 

Admittedly, our prayers are not often that lofty. More often than not, they have more to do with our own needs and desires. But there’s space in Jesus’ prayer even for that, as we will see tomorrow.

On Earth as it is in Heaven
Newport Back Bay