Your Kingdom Come: Praying God's Will (Episode 20)

Continuing through the Lord's Prayer, Pastor Brady arrives at a line we say quickly but rarely weigh: "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." After we come to God as Father - holy and hallowed - the very next thing Jesus tells us to pray is not for our needs, but for God's reign.

The Most Powerful Prayer There Is

There is nothing more powerful you can pray than for God's will to be done and His kingdom to come. We tend to come to prayer with our burdens - a prodigal child, our health, a crisis in the world - and all of those matter deeply to God. But before the list, Jesus teaches us to ask a different question first: "Father, what are you doing on the earth, in my home, in my city - and how can I cooperate?"

His Thoughts, Not Ours

That question humbles us. As Isaiah wrote, God's thoughts and ways are as far above ours as the heavens are above the earth. So often we come to prayer trying to direct God to do what we want, when the healthier posture is to ask how we can join what He's already doing. It changes everything: "Father, I have my thoughts, but I'd rather pray Yours."

"'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the LORD."

Heaven Onto Earth

"On earth as it is in heaven." In heaven, God's will is already done fully - perfect peace, health, and joy. That's not yet the reality of a world full of violence, disease, and strife. God is King by right, but not everyone has yet embraced His rule. So we pray that what is already true in heaven would break into the earth. As Pastor Brady puts it: heaven doesn't need more of the earth, but the earth desperately needs more of heaven.

Before your requests tomorrow, try starting here: "Father, what are You doing - and how can I cooperate?" It reorders our priorities and frees us from disappointment, because we begin to pray for what God is actually doing.

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