Whose Kingdom?

And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. (Luke 11:2)

We used to recite the "Lord's Prayer" in every service at Randolph Christian Church. I stopped this practice in our services because this prayer was not given by Jesus as something to be numbly repeated as a rote exercise. It was an example of how we should pray - a teaching tool given in response to His disciple's request, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples." (Luke 11:1)

We should think about this prayer, and what it teaches us about praying. For example, He said we should pray "Thy kingdom come." Do you pray for the coming of God's kingdom? Jeff Iorg, in his book entitled "The Character of Leadership" suggests we pray "Lord, Your kingdom matters. Mine doesn't. Advance Your cause, whatever that means for me." Can you pray that?

And if the coming of God's kingdom is important enough to pray for, is it important enough to spend time and energy building?

Most of us, at least in America, spend almost every waking minute building our own kingdoms. And yet our kingdoms are transitory, temporary, soon to be destroyed. When you are tempted to concentrate on building your own kingdom, take a good hard look at what you are building. It will be destroyed. Sometimes I look at my house, which I labored for months to build. I thank God He allows me to live in comfort and safety therein, but I also remember that it will be demolished one of these days. My kingdom is meaningless. It's His kingdom that matters. Time spent building my kingdom is wasted time. Time spent working toward His kingdom is an eternal investment.

We need a radical shift of focus - a realignment of our thinking processes. We need to be working to build God's kingdom. And when we pray "Thy kingdom come" we are taking a step in the right direction - focusing our thoughts onto His kingdom rather than our own.

Will you join me today in praying "Thy kingdom come?"