Praying the Lord’s Prayer
The Lord’s Prayer is the one that Jesus taught His disciples when they asked how they should pray.
This, then, is how you should pray:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today 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 the evil one (Matthew 6:9–13, NIV).
When we pray to God, Your Kingdom Come, what are we asking?
In my mind’s eye, I imagine pearly gates and streets of gold descending from the clouds. But I know this is not really what Jesus meant.
The world we live in is ruled by Satan. God gave him power to reign here on earth for a limited time. Although Satan’s kingdom will end when Christ returns, the devil tempted Jesus to become the God of this age before His time.
The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to” (Luke 4:5–6, NIV).
Satan’s kingdom is the opposite of God’s kingdom. His kingdom consists of rulers, authorities, powers, and forces of wickedness.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12, NIV).
When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we are asking for all to receive Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. We are praying for the return of Christ and for God to rule over our lives.
We are praying for the end of the kingdom of Satan. We are praying for the end to evil spiritual forces, and general forces of evil attacking believers.
“Thy kingdom come” is asking for the opposite of this world’s hunger, pain, and disease. We are asking for peace, joy, and love on earth as it is in heaven. We are asking to be with God.
Thy kingdom come!
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Want to go deeper into God’s Word? You’ll find this story—and many others that bring clarity to challenging passages—in What Does It Mean?: Exploring Biblical Truths About Difficult Scripture, available on Amazon.