YOUR KINGDOM COME, YOUR WILL BE DONE

“Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10 NIV (emphasis added)

The first parts of the Lord’s Prayer we learned to first honor and glorify God.  The primary of the prayer is God.  Now we move to the submission portion of the prayer and acknowledge God’s kingdom authority over our lives.

        

When we pray your kingdom come, we are not so much asking that God relocate his castle from the heavens to earth.  This is not a request to relocate physical land that is part of God’s kingdom.  We are asking that His reign come.  This is an absolute surrender to God’s reign.  Strong’s dictionary identifies this word as basileia which is defined as royal power, kingship, dominion, rule. 

         Praying for “Your kingdom come” is asking Jesus to rule and reign over every aspect of your life.  Not just the shiny polished good things we like to present to the public, but the deep desires in the recesses of our heart.  This is a surrender of everything…pride, honor, glory…all. 

To the flesh this screams of betrayal.  To the flesh this is insanity.  The first thing that comes to mind when you mention surrendering is what you have to surrender.  Our minds immediately flash to the “what’s in it for me” mentality.  This is the power of sin our nature.  Sin wants to reign.  This is why Jesus teaches the acknowledgement and submission prior to the petition or request.  

Now that we asked God to rule and reign, it is only natural to follow up with “Your will be done.”  This really drives home the first part of surrendering to God’s kingdom reign, so now we ask that His will be done.  Not only have we surrendered authority to God, but we now surrender our selfish sinful desires in exchange for God’s will.  Given to our own devices, we would have skipped the first two portions of this prayer.  We tend to overlook God and His reign and jump straight to the “this is what I want” stage.

          When we are in total submission to God's kingdom and allow His will to be done instead of ours, that is when we will see "the effective, fervent prayer" in James 5.  We are now aligning with God and can move into the petition portion of the prayer.