Matt.6:9,10 – Pray, then, in this way:
‘Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
‘Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
This verse, ‘let your kingdom come’, like many other verses in the scriptures, can have multiple applications. I want to mention two of them today. First, let your kingdom come can apply to the revelation of the Lord of His kingdom to individuals in this life. This is part of my prayers, that the Lord would become more and more real in my life that I may know Him and walk in His ways. Secondly, this is a prayer for the Lord Himself to return and establish His kingdom here on earth. Every time we pray, “let your kingdom come”, we are in effect saying “come quickly Lord Jesus”. Here is how Augustine described this prayer.
“The expression “thy kingdom come” is not to be thought of as if God were not now reigning. But some might get the strange impression that “come” implies “for the first time upon the earth”—as if to imply that God were not even now really reigning upon earth! Or that God had not always reigned upon the earth from the foundation of the world! “Come,” therefore, is to be understood in the sense of “manifested to humanity.” Just as light that is present is absent to the blind or to those who shut their eyes, so the kingdom of God, though it never departs from the earth, yet is absent to those who know nothing about it. To none, however, will ignorance of God’s kingdom be permitted when his Only Begotten comes from heaven. Then he will be recognizable not only by the intellect but visibly as the Man of the Lord to judge the living and the dead.”
Once you have become aware of the kingdom of heaven here and now in this world there is a huge shift in your life. You begin to see God’s kingdom all around you as He claims and restores His children. We see God’s kingdom clearly in His work of redemption, people coming out of horrible circumstances into His beautiful plan of restoration. We see His hand at work in us and through us, our only response is “let your kingdom come”. As we taste His goodness more and more our longing intensifies; that’s when our cry includes the return of Jesus. Let your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
