The Lord’s Prayer and the Earth-Invading Kingdom

Jesus wants you to pray as if you believe the kingdom will (note NOT might, maybe, possibly, potentially) advance on Planet Earth.

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"Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10).

Yet we shudder to think that God’s kingdom has any real hope of triumph on this third rock from the sun.

Indeed, we will readily ask our Father in Heaven for traveling mercies on vacation, a clean bill of health at our next doctor’s visit, a promotion at work, and so on. And we believe—rightly so—that the Lord cares about these “earthy” matters.

But tell a born-again believer to pray, expectantly, for God’s rule and reign to be made manifest on this dusty sod, pre-Christ’s return, and you will receive some rather odd looks.

And yet Jesus seemed utterly undistracted by the high risk of strange looks when he taught his disciples how to pray.

Certainly the Teacher of Teachers could have instructed his pupils to simply “hold on to your hats.” After all, this world is going to hell in a hand basket—and that in a New York minute. So just bury your coin in a hole and don’t mess with losing it.

Instead, Jesus very plainly told his disciples to pray for something so tangibly earthy as “your kingdom come.” Perhaps someone forgot to inform the Son of God that pie-in-the-sky pipe dreams seem best suited for launch after his Second Advent, not before.

But Jesus stands uncorrected and undaunted by our 21st-century, low-level expectations of kingdom progress.

In the coming weeks and months, I’ll explain what I mean by “kingdom progress.”

In the meantime, let’s take a lesson from our Lord and pray like we believe Christ’s kingdom will invade the earth.