A Kingdom Emphasis

A Kingdom Emphasis

Last week we began looking at the model prayer that Jesus gave to His disciples. In Luke 11 this comes at the request of one of the disciples to teach them how they ought to pray. So, last week we considered what it meant and looked like to pray that the name of God be hallowed. The next request, or petition, that Jesus tells us to make of our Father is “Your kingdom come.”

Jesus teaches His disciples that their prayers should have a distinctive kingdom flare. Just as Jesus told us that we are to “seek first the kingdom of God” (Matt. 6:33), so it is natural as kingdom seekers to pray for the coming and increase of our Father’s kingdom. How then might we pray in more detail for the kingdom of our Father? 

First, we can pray that the Lord would go forth and draw sinners to Jesus Christ. We understand that this world is broken by sin and is in need of redemption. More than anything else, the gospel of Jesus Christ is needed to bring man from death to life. Even so, we recognize that while we are called to be faithful to take to the gospel to the lost, we are not the one who can remove a heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh (Ez. 36:26). Only the Lord can change the heart of man. Only He can go before us and bring about the work of regeneration. So then, let us pray to that end.

Secondly, we can pray that the Lord would be pleased to purify His Church day by day so that they might be a bright beacon of Gospel hope to a dark world. It was the Puritans of the days past who described prayer as “the work” of the Church. It is not enough to simply acknowledge that the Church ought to be a beacon of Gospel hope. Even the devil knows that. What we must do is undergird that intellectual fact with the work of prayer. That as we are personally conformed to Christ, then we would seek to gather together with the local church for the sake of praying toward this end.

Lastly, we pray with eager anticipation of the return of the Lord Jesus. The kingdom of Christ will come in fullness when He returns for His Bride. We look forward to the day when all the promises of God are brought to their consummate end and we are with Him. Therefore, let us join with the Apostle John, who closes the book of Revelation saying, “Amen. Come. Lord Jesus.” May that be our hearts desire as well.

So then, brethren, let us make use of Christ’s lesson in prayer. Let us look to our Father in heaven and ask of Him, “Thy kingdom come.” May our prayers be seasoned with a passion and zeal for the kingdom of God.

Grace be with you,
C. R. Hamilton