Your Kingdom Come

This past week during the mission's daily prayer meeting, we took a look at the Lord's Prayer.  Simplistic and concise, yet one could meditate on it for hours and hours and even after a lifetime it's unlikely that we will fully understand it's implications on how a human lives out their life on this earth.

It appears in two places in the scriptures, once in Mathew (ch 6) and once in Luke (ch 11).  Christ uses it as a teaching tool for how to pray.  In Mathew, Christ uses it to counter how the hypocrites and pagans pray, full of pride and babbling.  In Luke, Christ explains how we are to approach God with boldness in our petitions.  Pray with humility before the Lord, but go to Him boldly!  God knows are needs before we ask.

One topic that we spent some time talking about was the phrase "your kingdom come."  The basic meaning of this petition for me is saying "your victory is coming."  This encapsulates the truth that the Kingdom of God is coming, there will be a battle against darkness, and grand battle, but God has already told us how it ends.  As believers, we will see a marvelous demonstration of power and glory by the creator of all.  And what an honor to confess my position on the winning side.  A post today at The Resurgence blog says this about the Kingdom of God, "At its simplest, the kingdom of God is the result of God's mission to rescue and renew his sin-marred creation. The kingdom of God is about Jesus our king establishing his rule and reign over all creation, defeating the human and angelic evil powers, bringing order to all, enacting justice, and being worshiped as Lord."

The Lord's Prayer (1928 Anglican Book of Common Prayer with Doxology)

Our Father who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us,

and lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

[The 1928 BCP adds:

For thine is the kingdom,

and the power, and the glory,

for ever and ever.]

Amen.