Daily Devotional For Tuesday, October 15, 2024

It is amazing how fast time seems to fly. It seems as if this was just last Tuesday and here we are another week later. We are making our way through Jesus’ Sermon On The Mount found in Matthew chapters 5, 6, & 7. Currently we are making our way through what has been called The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6. Some scholars like to call this prayer The Disciples’ Prayer instead since Jesus gave this prayer to His disciples. Yesterday, we left off with “Thy kingdom come, They will be done . . . .” This is where we are going to pick up today with the concluding line of “. . . on earth as it is in heaven.” 

One of the big mysteries we have to live with is since God is sovereign, then why should we pray, “Thy kingdom come, They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Since God is sovereign, isn’t His will done anyway? This is a mystery we have to live with today. God has given us free will and the right to choose. If not, then His commands would be useless in terms of obedience by us to them. If God did not respond to our prayers, then our attempt at them would also be useless and meaningless.

So, when we pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” we are praying that God’s rule, reign and will be done in our lives. Meaning we want God’s will to  become our own will. When we say “God’s will,” what do we mean? Some see God as some kind of dictator, throwing out orders and thus they are resentful because when they pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,” they are praying out of compulsion. To such people who feel this way, they see no need to pray at all.

Even to some who believe God’s will is inevitable, they may be more willing to give God a break on this to some extent. Thus they pray out of reservation simply because God tells them to do that. They do not attempt to make God’s will their will, but instead let God do what He wants to do while they go about their own life battling the frustration of simply complying to pray as a means to comply. They pray this not so much out of faith, but out of a sense of what they perceive as being forced to do this. 

This is easy for Christians, disciples of Jesus, to fall into this trap of praying. There may be a humorous example of this even in Scripture in Acts 12:1-24. Take a moment to read this stor in your Bible. It involves when Peter was put into prison and the early disciples met to pray for his release. Take your Bible and read this please. This tells me they were praying for what they really did not believe would happen. In other words, they prayed what everyone wanted to be prayed for, but no one really believed it would happen. 

We can be like that also when we pray. We put on a good front, wear the spiritual mask of faith, then do not expect our prayer or prayer to change a thing. We pray out of a sense of duty and obligation, subconsciously thinking that God is going to do just as He wants to do anyway. Jesus gave the parable of the urgent and persistent widow—who refused to accept the status quo and persisted in begging, despite receiving no response—for the very purpose of protecting us against that sort of passive and unspiritual resignation.

Look at Luke 18:1, One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up” (NLT). The fact we are commanded to pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” indicates that God’s will is not always done on earth. Maybe one of the reasons God’s will is not done on earth as much as it should be done is that people who call themselves Christians do not pray enough that it will. To think or say, “Well, God will do what He wants to do” is not affirming God’s sovereignty. This is a fatalistic view and it destroys faithful people from praying faithfully that God’s will  . . . will be done. It is not God’s will that people simply die because Jesus Christ came to conquer and destroy death. It is not God’s will for people to go to hell because Jesus Christ took all the sin of everyone ever on Himself on that cross so that sinful people could escape hell and go to heaven.

Some people view prayer from the opposite viewpoint – meaning from the opposite view of God’s sovereignty. They see prayer as the art of manipulating God’s will towards their will. They see God as some kind of genie in the bottle or a vending machine. All they have to do is insert the proper claim and God does it. It’s called the “Name It & Claim It” prayer style. They believe that if you do not put in the “right name,” God will not let you “claim it” later. This turns prayer from a worship of God to a worship of self. It balloons egos, pride and self-centeredness. What a demonic way to think about prayer. 

When we pray, “Thy kingdom come,” this affirms God has been sovereignly King in the past. There has never been a time in the past that God was not King. Pastor and author John Stott writes this: “As He is already holy so He is already King, reigning in absolute sovereignty over both nature and history” (Source: John Stott, Christian Counter Culture, p. 147). When we pray, “Thy kingdom come” affirms God has been sovereignly King in the future. 

Though God is King, His reign is also future. New Testament Greek scholar Earnest Lohmeyer writes this: “The verb “come” refers here to a decisive time in the future when the kingdom will come once and for all—an event that will happen only once” (Source: (Earnest Lohmeyer, Our Father, p. 104). This means we are praying for Christ’s second return in the future, judge the world and set up His earthly kingdom. Praying, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done” affirms God is sovereign in the present. New Testament scholar R. Kent Hughes writes this:

“Jesus’ passion was the kingdom. It was the major theme of his preaching. The word `kingdom’  occurs forty-nine times in Matthew, sixteen in Mark, and thirty-eight in Luke—103 times in those three Gospels! Before he went to the cross Jesus said, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent” (Luke 4:43). After the Resurrection the kingdom was still his passion as he appeared to his disciples “over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). Preaching the kingdom was his consuming passion.

How did Jesus Christ bring the kingdom? Primarily by bringing men and women into obedient conformity to the Father’s will. This is the meaning of “your kingdom come” in its context because the immediately following and parallel words are, “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Those who are in God’s kingdom strive to do God’s will. In fact, they do it” (Source: R. Kent Hughes, Preaching The Word Bible Commentary, “The Sermon On The Mount,” p. 170).

To pray, “Thy kingdom come” implies several truths according to New Testament scholar R. Kent Hughes:

1. “First thing, our wills always want to go a different way from God’s. This prayer reminds us to make our wills His will. As I said yesterday the Greek New Testament word translated as “kingdom” can also be translated as “rule, reign.” Jesus said this at the ver beginning of His ministry in Mark 1:15,  “The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!” (NASB),
2. Second, praying this line demands a certain level of commitment from us so that our lives influence people to come to Christ. Jesus said this in Luke 9:62,  “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (NASB).
3. Third, God’s kingdom is to be pursued by Christians, but disciples above everything else. Look at Matthew 6:33, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (NASB). I remind you what I told you in a previous devotional, the word “seek” in the Greek should be translated as “keep seeking.” 
4. Fourth, God’s kingdom is limited to only those who have a profound dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (NASB). No one has the kingdom except those who have come to the end of themselves and have turned to God” (Source: Source: R. Kent Hughes, Preaching The Word Bible Commentary, “The Sermon On The Mount,” p. 171).

To pray, “Thy kingdom come” means we are all in to make impacts in every facet of our society. It means we are committed to live out The Beatitudes found in Matthew 5:3-12. You can read devotionals about this starting on August 14–September 7. But Jesus undercuts that notion throughout His model prayer that prayer is some attempt to manipulate God to get answers. True prayer focuses on Thy name, Thy kingdom, Thy will. Amy Carmichael wrote, “And shall I pray to change Thy will, my Father, until it accord to mine? But no, Lord, no; that shall never be. Rather I pray Thee blend my human will with Thine” (Source: link: https://wordsofgrace.blog/2008/10/19/todays-quote-101908/.

Questions To Consider

1. To pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done” runs against our sinful nature. How do you see prayer? What is the purpose of prayer?
2. Based on the number of times the word “kingdom” is mentioned in the Gospels alone, what does this tell you about the connection between the sovereignty of God and prayer? Why did you give this answer?
3. You were given four implications above from R. Kent Hughes about what it means to pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done?
4. Some Christians fall for the “Name it and claim it” approach to prayer. Have you ever fallen for this demonic approach to prayer? If so, why? Why do you think Christians are quick to jump to this “name and it and claim it” approach to prayer rather than just saying, “God, whatever Your will, reign and rule is for me, so be it”?
5. Which area of your life do you need to pra,y “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done”?

Scripture To Meditate On: Matthew 26:39, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will” (NASB).

Prayer To Prayer: “Dear Jesus, my prayer for my own life is, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done” for my life. Lord, please help me to make my will Your will. I love you Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly