“Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Matthew 6:9-13
"The kingdom of God is the present and ever-developing spiritual reality in the hearts and lives of God’s people (that is growing) in a constant and widening sphere.” Louis Burkof, Systematic Theology
Westminster Shorter Catechism
102: What do we pray for in the second petition?
A: In the second petition, which is, Thy kingdom come, we pray that Satan's kingdom may be destroyed; and that the kingdom of grace may be advanced, ourselves and others brought into it, and kept in it; and that the kingdom of glory may be hastened.
The Lord’s Prayer is a progressive statement of the attitude of a disciple of Christ. We rejoice in the fact that God is our “Abba Father” and then we are to pray earnestly that his name would be cherished, honored and worshiped (hallowed). We ask that the kingdom of grace would be advanced in our lives and that the works of the devil would be destroyed and, in this section of the prayer, we ask that he would give us the ability to gladly accept his sovereign oversight of our lives.
“Thy will be done" means By your empowering grace, make me able and willing to know and obey your revealed will from the heart with gladness and embrace my duties and calling as I trust your Fatherly goodness.
How Do We Know and Do God’s Will?
1. Always rejoice in the goodness, kindness and tender mercies of the triune God. (2 Peter 2:1-3)
2. Walk in a growing knowledge of the Scripture which leads to obedient application and biblical knowledge.
3. Labor to get and keep your heart humbled (Exodus 5:2, Proverbs 5:11-14).
4. Plead for daily grace (we cannot live on yesterday’s manna).
“Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground!” Psalm 143:10
“Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.” Psalm 86:11
5. Look to the example of Christ (Jesus’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane).
6. We are not stoics or advocates of “rugged individualism”...but we do trust in the mercy and goodness of God.
7. Trust the empowering grace of the Lord on a daily basis.
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
APPLICATION:
1. Walk with a growing, biblical knowledge that gives foundational, daily wisdom.
“The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.” Psalm 119:130
2. Live the life of trust.
“The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.” Isaiah 26:3
3. Trust the goodness of the Lord by embracing various responsibilities/calling:
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