By David ReayWednesday 13 Apr 2016LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 2 minutes
Read Matthew 6:10
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven. (NIV)
Not even God gets his own way in his own world. He made it, he rules it, he is all powerful. But somehow he restrains his power so that human beings can be truly human beings. We use our freedom to go our own way rather than let God have his way.
Which is why we pray this phrase of the Lord’s Prayer. We pray that we will obey God, go his way rather than follow our independent streak. We are not simply praying that God’s will be done in some abstract or general way. We ourselves are part of the answer to the prayer. We are the ones who are to live out his rule or his kingdom. We are the ones who are to do his will.
Of course we are aware that his rule will not be perfected and his will won’t be perfectly done until he comes again to inaugurate the new heavens and new earth. But till that time, we are to pray that such a heavenly reality will be expressed on earth—at least to some degree. And we are to play a part in it.
Whenever we pray this prayer, we are committing ourselves to personal obedience. We are not simply praying that God sort out the problems in the Middle East or Africa. We are praying that in our small corner of the world God will have his way and that we will be somehow reflections of his kindly and just rule.
Blessings
David Reay