Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:10, NKJV.
Dear God, It is with joy that we enter Your Presence this day. May we learn how to hasten Your kingdom of Glory, by living according to its principles here on earth. In the holy name of Jesus I pray. Amen.
Today, as we continue to look at what many refer to as The Lord’s Prayer, there is a very specific request that the Savior is making to our Father. He is asking that God’s kingdom come to earth. This request is followed by what I see as a way this request can be made possible – by God’s will being done here on earth as it is done in heaven!
We must first establish which kingdom the Savior is referring to, the kingdom of Grace? The Kingdom of Glory? Or both (both, of course are under God’s jurisdiction.)? Neither of these kingdoms were what Israel was expecting when Christ came to earth. This is obvious by their question to Him as they bade Him farewell just before He went back to the Father:
” ‘ “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” ‘ ” (Acts 1:6b)
From the very beginning Christ had tried to prepare their minds to understand and accept the kingdom of Grace which would precede the kingdom of Glory, with statements like the following:
“Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘ “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” ‘ ” (Mark 1:14,15. Emphasis provided)
“Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, ” ‘ “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you” ‘ ” (Luke 17:20,21)
He preached it and then He lived it: ” ‘ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” ‘ ” (Luke 4:18,19).
Listen to the following Scripture:
“The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ-He is Lord of all- that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:36-38).
This sounds very much like grace in action, does it not? Tomorrow we will continue this conversation by looking at how this grace could be applied by Christ’s followers in the Twenty-first century.