"Your Kingdom Come"

The Kingdom of God is a reoccurring theme in Scripture. Jesus addresses it many times, and He does so again in “The Lord’s Prayer” with these words “Your Kingdom come, your will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10) Jesus teaches all of us to pray this prayer, but do we really follow through with obedience? Sometimes my prayers sound like this “My kingdom come, my will be done”. Perhaps you can relate? We have a tendency to put ourselves first in life and in our prayers. One writer has described this attitude of our age as the “The supremacy of self”. But of course this is nothing new, the Apostle Paul writes of this in Romans 1:25 “Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever! Amen.” When humanity exchanges the truth of God for a lie, idolatry is always the result. We would be quick to condemn this kind of attitude displayed in others, but what about the subtle ways it is displayed in us? How often are we quick to be offended, or allow our pride to become the issue between others and ourselves? When we do this, in essence we are saying “My will be done”. Jesus teaches us to pray in a way that quiets our desire for our own way. It was a prayer that He taught us and exemplified in the garden when He prayed, “Father, not my will but yours be done”. (Matthew 26:39) Jesus is not asking us to pray in a way that He hasn’t. In fact He prayed this prayer under far more difficult circumstances than we could ever imagine. Today as we continue to explore the depth of truth in the model prayer given to us by our Lord, may we submit our wills to the will of our perfect Heavenly Father.

1. Why do you think we have such difficulty aligning our will with the will of God?
2. What are some ways that we can intentionally monitor our pride and submit to God’s will?
3. How do you intend to take a “Next Step” this week in applying what you have heard today from the Word of God?