For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Matthew 6: 13, NKJV.
Gracious God, and Holy Heavenly Father, We are thankful to You for the hope of an eternal home in Your kingdom, where there will be no hunger, sickness, pain, no death, nor crying, because You alone will be in charge. We praise You for this, in the name of Jesus the Christ. Amen and Amen!
We have come to the end of what has been called the model prayer. The prayer that Jesus taught His disciples at their request for Him to teach them how to pray. I find this a most encouraging way to end this prayer.
We began this prayer by acknowledging God as our Heavenly Father, and we end it by proclaiming Him as the final Victor in this great controversy between good and evil. His will and His will only, will finally be done in this war-torn, sin-sick kingdom here on earth, as it is being done in the heavenly kingdom. All the honor and all the glory will ultimately be recognized as belonging to the true Sovereign of the universe – God, our Father! Hallelujah!
But while we wait for His kingdom to come, and His will to be done on earth as it is being done in heaven, there is work for us to do, as citizens of that heavenly kingdom.
We can share our daily bread with those who have no bread.
We can begin forgiving those who have done us harm. This is easier said than done, but with God, it is possible. Whenever we get stuck in the process of forgiving those who have wronged us, let us go to Micah 7:18-20. When we realize that the sins we have confessed have been cast into the depths of the sea, and we read statements like these:
“The deepest known point on Earth is at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, a depression in the floor of the western Pacific Ocean, just east of the Mariana Islands. . . . If you cut Mount Everest off at sea level (29,029 ft) and put it on the ocean bottom in the Challenger Deep, there would still be over a mile of water over the top of it” (http://www.ocean.udel.edu/deepsea/level-…
http://www.extremescience.com/DeepestOce…)!
It becomes very obvious that our sins have not only been forgiven, but also forgotten! Praise the Lord! Let us do to others what God has done to us.
Now, in the strength of the Lord, and by “[His] grace that is made strong in [our] weakness” may we cooperate with the Lord in bringing His kingdom of glory to earth!