1.1 Rethinking the Lord's Prayer

I have known the Lord’s Prayer most of my life. Like many of you, I learned it as a child. And because I recited it in church every week I had it memorized at an early age. This prayer is deeply ingrained in me, and yet, I have become increasingly convinced that for most of my life, I completely missed the heart of the Lord’s Prayer.

I thought the meat of the prayer was about daily needs, about giving and receiving forgiveness, about avoiding temptation and about being delivered from evil. I think that’s because I tended to live a fairly me-centered Christian life. And so, it was easy to think the Lord’s Prayer was given as a means for God to meet my needs.

In the past several years, however, God has begun to show me the importance of His Kingdom, and the importance of community among His children. God has a purpose for this world, and He wants to use His children to help accomplish that purpose.

So on that fateful day when one of Jesus’ disciples asked Him, “Teach us to pray”, Jesus responded with a prayer intended to move their eyes off themselves and redirect their gaze on God and His Kingdom.

The heart of the Lord’s Prayer

What is the heart of the Lord’s Prayer? Three simple words really sum it up: Thy Kingdom come. In other words, “Lord, Holy God, bring Your Kingdom here. I want it to come. Bring it about today, and use me in whatever way You will to show the reality of Your Kingdom to those who don’t know about it.” That’s the heart of the prayer – but for the longest time, I didn’t even know what those three words meant. I didn’t even realize that “Thy Kingdom come” was a request. Wrapped up in that simple statement is a prayer that God will invade lives with His incredible love and change them forever. That God will reign in the hearts and lives of His children; and that more and more people will come to know and love God with all their hearts.

Why study Kingdom prayer?

My purpose in writing this study is to encourage you to rethink prayer; to pray bigger prayers – Kingdom Prayers. To pray prayers that extend beyond our wants and needs; to pray prayers that come from the heart of God Himself.
In order to do that, let’s first define the Kingdom of God.
One reason that I didn’t understand “Thy Kingdom come” is because I had an incomplete understanding of the Kingdom. I believed that to pray “Thy Kingdom come” meant that I wanted Jesus to make the second coming happen today. You see, I thought the Kingdom of God was a future-only occurrence; something that would happen in the distant future. Consequently, I didn’t feel any real urgency to pray “Thy Kingdom come” on a daily basis.

Yes, the Kingdom is future, but it’s also present!

But Jesus made it clear that His kingdom is coming in the future but, it is also here and now. When Jesus arrived on the scene, the kingdom arrived on earth. That’s why at the beginning of His ministry, He said, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is here.” (Matthew 4:17). That’s also why Jesus taught us that instead of worrying, we should “seek first God’s Kingdom…” That would make no sense if the coming of the Kingdom was not a present day reality.

Much of Jesus’ teaching centered on the Kingdom of God. In fact, we’ll look at several of His teachings on the Kingdom in the weeks to come. For now, suffice it to say that He taught about the present state of the Kingdom as well as the future fulfillment of the Kingdom of God. He taught that the Kingdom of God is near, that it is inclusive, that it is continually growing and is abundant, it is precious and of great worth, it is powerful, it has great authority, it is present, it belongs to those who mourn, it is characterized by forgiveness and grace, and that it is available to all who repent and believe.

So Jesus taught a lot about the Kingdom of God, but just exactly what is it?

Definition: so what exactly is God’s kingdom?

Simply stated, The Kingdom of God is the reign and rule of God in the hearts of His children.

So when I pray “Your Kingdom come” I could also pray it this way: “Lord, reign and rule in my heart and in the hearts of Your children.” This is a prayer of submission – that we will bow to the reign of the King. It is a prayer of respect – that He is a worthy ruler and we desire His reign over us. It’s a prayer of commitment – that as He rules, we will follow. It is a prayer of direction – that as He leads we will point others to Him.

At Glenfield, we sing a song that has “Thy Kingdom come” as its heartbeat. We sing:

“Lord, reign in me, reign in Your power,
Over all my dreams, in my darkest hour,
You are the Lord of all I am,
So won’t You reign in me again?

Reign In Me. Words and music by Brenton Brown. ©1998 Vineyard Songs. ARR, ICS, UBP.

Definition: so what exactly are Kingdom Prayers?

Kingdom Prayers are prayers that ask God to expand His reign and rule in our hearts, so that we can love and serve Him more fully (in other words, prayers that encourage us to love God).

Kingdom prayers are also prayers that ask God to expand His reign and rule across the hearts of all His children (in other words, prayers that encourage us to love His family).

Kingdom prayers are also prayers that ask God to make His reign and rule known to people who do not yet know Him (In other words, prayers that encourage us to impact our world with His love).

In his book, Living the Sermon on the Mount, Glen Stassen has an example ot the outcomes of Kingdom Prayer: "When you pray that the will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven, envision conflict being resolved, marriages and families healed, truth told and people faithful to one another, initiatives that break through the vicious cycles of retaliation, and love that creates new community among people through forgiveness, reconciliation, and peacemaking.”

Daily Prayer

Each day of this study, we should pray. Begin today by reading through the Lord’s prayer. It is found in Matthew 6:9 "Pray, then, in this way: "Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 "Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. 11 "Give us this day our daily bread. 12 "And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 "And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. '

Prayer Bullets:

• Ask God to give you direction as you pray.
• Ask Him to give you a heart for the things that matter most to Him.
• Ask Him to give you a deeper understanding of Kingdom Prayer.
• Record your insights from prayer and the Scriptures today: