Matthew 6:10

“May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”

The Lord’s Prayer, in common with the whole of Jesus’ ministry, is focused on the kingdom of heaven. So we need to have a very clear idea what this kingdom is. In essence, the kingdom of God comes wherever God is recognised as king. When his rule is accepted, the results will be immediately recognisable because they will be marked by peace, love, joy, truth and justice.

When we pray the Lord’s Prayer we are saying that we have signed up to work for this amazing kingdom and we want to bring it about here and now. We want the kingdom to be established in our family, our community, our workplace and our church. In this life, the kingdom will always be under attack just as it was throughout Jesus’ ministry, but we need to keep our focus on the king as we seek to encourage every evidence of his kingdom.

Some years ago, I was sent a wonderful press cutting that gave me an insight into what the kingdom could look like. It was the report of the stone-laying of a church in Plymouth in 1905. It was a wet day but, even so, the event went ahead and the mayor of the city kindly attended. He was clearly a Christian as he declared that, the more widely the good news of Jesus Christ was proclaimed, the less would be the work of the police and the magistrates and the less claim would be made on the poor relief of the town. Speaking generally he said: “the proclamation of the good news made municipal work more easy and the rates more light.” I love that! What he was saying was that the church’s business was to introduce the kingdom of heaven, which would have an impact on the whole community. Too often churches turn in on themselves and forget that God’s desire is that we should work for the coming of his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

Question

In what way are you working to bring the kingdom of heaven here on earth?

Prayer

Lord God, thank you that you have invited us to work with you to bring your kingdom to our world today. Amen

Released on 15 Aug 2024