Today we are going to learn the second and the third of the seven petitions in the Lord's Prayer (the first three address God, the second four are prayers related to our needs and concerns):
I. "Your Kingdom Come"
In verse 9, we address God as our heavenly Father; Here He is our King, whose kingdom is not of this world. The word "Kingdom" comes from two words - King and domain. The domain is the territory governed by the ruler, the King. It is not necessarily a geographical place. Instead, our hearts can be the place where his Kingdom reigns. So, when we pray, "Your kingdom come," we ask God to reign our lives fully; We express our desire for His sovereign rule over our lives here on earth, as we submit to His authority and yield to His control in every aspect of our existence. And we ask the heavenly Father to help us in our own lives be faithful, obedient, authentic, and effective Christians. Remember, the Lord's dominion must be evident in the lives of His followers.
Praying "Your Kingdom come" also mean we ask God to save more people. We know from Scripture that God wants to save all sinners (2 Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."). In Christ's model for prayer, we have confirmation that intercessory prayer for the salvation of souls is a worthwhile endeavor. Praying, "Your Kingdom come," is the same as saying, "Dear Lord, please open the hearts of my loved ones, friends, co-workers, and neighbors to receive Your gift of salvation in Jesus Christ." God's kingdom will expand as more people turn to Christ for salvation. They enter the kingdom when they come to know the crucified King of that kingdom. People need the gospel!
Praying "Your Kingdom come" also means we express our desire to see God establish His Kingdom soon in Christ's second coming, where the Kingdom of God will be fully realized "on earth as it is in heaven." So, this second petition is both a request for more of God's Kingdom to come now on earth and a looking forward to the fullness of God's Kingdom in the future.
II. "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven"
It means we are aligning our will with God's will; we are submitting ourselves to Him, and asking that His way triumphs. So, when we pray, "Your will be done," we acknowledge God's right to rule. We do not pray, "My will be done"; we pray, "Your will be done." Asking that God's will be done is a demonstration of our trust that He knows what is best. It is a statement of submission to God's ways and His plans. We ask for our will to be conformed to His.
My Testimony: In 1989, I had to decide where the first church I would start serving. I was about to accept the invitation of the church where I grew up. But then, three senior pastors, separately and without discussing with each other, encouraged me to serve a church in another city. I refused their suggestion. I didn't want to serve that church because it was known as the toughest church in the Conference. After all, the church had a lot of conflicts and had experienced division twice. But when I sought God's will, He spoke to me clearly in my heart, said: "The church needs a pastor." I reluctantly obeyed God's will. So, in June 1990, I started to serve the church. It was tough. If I weren't sure that that was a church that God wanted me to serve, I would have left the church after a year or two (like the 15 ministers who served that church before me). By God's grace, I served that church until January 2006. Now, if I look back, I can say, "God knew what was best for that church and me then."
Jesus gave us examples of how He always did the will of His Father. In John 5:30, Jesus stated, "I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me." Looking for God's will to be done on earth was a way of life for Jesus.
To live according to God's plan was so important to Jesus that He said, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work" (John 4:34). Just like eating food, carrying out God's plan was a life-sustaining activity for Jesus. He felt, like hunger, a continual inner need to do God's will and, like food, an on-going satisfaction in accomplishing the work God gave Him to do. Right before Jesus was betrayed and turned over to endure the agonies of the cross and drink the cup of God's wrath, He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane. He said, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." (Matthew 26:39). And he said again, "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done." (Matthew 26:42). Jesus, understandably, did not want to drink the cup of God's wrath. That experience was not a delight. But, Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane's garden provides an example of what it means to surrender our desires and trust that God's will is ultimately better than any plans we might devise on our own.
While indeed not pleasant at the time, Hebrews 5:9 explains that Jesus' decision to obey God's will made Him "the source of eternal salvation." His following God's plan benefitted humankind by offering a way of salvation. Paul tells the Philippians how Jesus' decision also benefitted Jesus Himself: "Being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:8–11). Choosing God's will when it came to drinking the cup of God's wrath ultimately led to salvation for humankind, Jesus' exaltation, and God the Father is glorified. God's will was in the best interest of everyone and proved to be a good (one might say "the best") plan.
When we pray, "Your will be done," we are praying for God to accomplish His purposes and enable us to live as obedient children. God is sovereign, so there is no doubt that what He desires will ultimately come about. However, when we are praying for His will to be done "on earth as it is in heaven," we align our desires with God's. We want people to know Him and obey Him. Praying for God's will to be done is an active demonstration of our desire for God to increase righteousness on the earth, draw more to repentance, and for His kingdom to come fully.
Praying "Your will be done" means forsaking our plans and desires to instead trust God's will, believing in His goodness and His wisdom. E. Stanley Jones says, "If you don't surrender to Christ, you'll surrender to chaos." May we follow James' teaching in James 4:7 to "submit yourselves therefore to God" by praying, "Your will be done," and may it be to us a delight to do His will. Billy Graham was once asked the secret to victorious Christian living. He said there is no magic formula for such a life; then, he went on to offer what he thought was one word that described it - "surrender." I want to close the message today by reminding you again about Fanny Crosby. Though' blind since six months of age, she said: "I know it's God's will that I be blind because I'm not distracted by all there is to see physically, I'm able to see so much more spiritually." She believed in a God-planned life, and let it make her better instead of bitter, and that's why we can sing many of the hundreds of hymns she wrote. A.W. Tozer said: "Let a man set his heart only on doing the will of God, and he is instantly free. If we understand our first and sole duty to consist of loving God supremely and loving everyone, even our enemies, for God's dear sake, then we can enjoy spiritual tranquility under any circumstance."
