Bethany Bullet - March 3, 2015

Continuation of BREATHE series on Lord’s Prayer

Petition: “Thy Kingdom Come.”

After we've prayed to “Hallow God’s name”, we are told to ask for His kingdom to come.  When our prayer (The Lord’s Prayer) is done we will confess that the kingdom, along with the power and glory, are His.  Here we ask for that which is His, to become ours, by confidence (that is trust in His promise) and experience (that is in the joys of heaven) so we pray, “Thy Kingdom Come.”  

Jesus teaches His followers, those who trust in Him as Prince of Peace and David’s greater Son, to pray for God’s kingdom to come.  That prayer is one that first and foremost asks God to expand His rule over the territory…of our hearts.  Unlike the kings of earth, this is not a kingdom of land boundaries but one in which people all over the earth who also trust in Jesus as the Prince of Peace, our Brother, Captain and King, dwell. 

To pray, “Thy kingdom come” is to confess that Christ has already won the war!  Of course, this is not to deny that His reign is not fully realized in this world.   From doubts to despair, from the divorce of lovers, to the death of loved ones, from disease to disaster, and to the devil’s tempts and taunts we are well aware of the truth that we are not simply living in heaven on earth, but are in fact, though the war is won, living in days of warring kingdoms.

We are living in days that are sandwiched between the Triumph of the Cross and the termination of time as we know it. 

Praying that God’s kingdom come is a request and invitation:

1.        For Him to sit enthroned in our heart, mind and spirit. 

2.       A plea that He rule and reign in us! 

3.       A plea that He who rules and reigns in us to rule and reign in all

AND

4.       A plea that He hasten the day when His rule is ALL in ALL!

It is a prayer He has answered.  Your sin He has forgiven, your request He has fulfilled, you are His subject and He is your sovereign!  You have been blessed beyond measure by the Triumph of the Cross…and it is a prayer He has yet to answer; but answer He certainly shall!  Christ has won the victory, decisively defeated the enemies of sin and suffering, shame and sorrow, sepulcher and Satan himself and yet it awaits for all to recognize this victory; still to come is the “bowing of every knee” and the “confessing of every tongue”…but it is only a short time away until “the final trumpet and the twinkling of an eye,” when that which is ours be faith becomes ours by sight and God gives us what we already have - the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ in His Kingdom come.

- Pastor Kevin Kritzer