This week before the U.S. election, I wonder what would happen if every follower of Jesus began praying, “May your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Because doesn’t it seem like there’s a kingdom conversation going on? Where as humans, we’re asking, hoping, expecting, and trusting an earthly king (or president) to do what only a heavenly king can do for us?
When the children of God rejected God as their king and instead demanded for a human king, God clearly warned them what would happen. See here in 1 Samuel 8:4-22 CSB,
So all the elders of Israel gathered together and went to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Therefore, appoint a king to judge us the same as all the other nations have.” When they said, “Give us a king to judge us,” Samuel considered their demand wrong, so he prayed to the LORD. But the LORD told him, “Listen to the people and everything they say to you. They have not rejected you; they have rejected me as their king. They are doing the same thing to you that they have done to me, since the day I brought them out of Egypt until this day, abandoning me and worshiping other gods. Listen to them, but solemnly warn them and tell them about the customary rights of the king who will reign over them.” Samuel told all the LORD’s words to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, “These are the rights of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and put them to his use in his chariots, on his horses, or running in front of his chariots. He can appoint them for his use as commanders of thousands or commanders of fifties, to plow his ground and reap his harvest, or to make his weapons of war and the equipment for his chariots. He can take your daughters to become perfumers, cooks, and bakers. He can take your best fields, vineyards, and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He can take a tenth of your grain and your vineyards and give them to his officials and servants. He can take your male servants, your female servants, your best cattle, and your donkeys and use them for his work. He can take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves can become his servants. When that day comes, you will cry out because of the king you’ve chosen for yourselves, but the LORD won’t answer you on that day.” The people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We must have a king over us. Then we’ll be like all the other nations: our king will judge us, go out before us, and fight our battles.” Samuel listened to all the people’s words and then repeated them to the LORD. “Listen to them,” the LORD told Samuel. “Appoint a king for them.” Then Samuel told the men of Israel, “Each of you, go back to your city.”
Did you notice the pattern?
God clearly warned the Israelites that human kings will take, take, take, and then take some more.
In asking for a human king, the Israelites were basically saying that they wanted to go back to the kind of life that God rescued them from back in Egypt.
They were rejecting a King who gave them manna to eat in the desert, who gave them water to drink out of rocks, who gave them their daily bread, and who gave them deliverance from a life of slavery under the nations around them. And instead, they wanted to replace that King with another king who would take their food, take their water, take the fruit of their work, and take their sons and daughters for his own use.
What a stark difference.
When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he was intentional in setting a pattern. See here in Matthew 6:9-13 CSB,
Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy. 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 do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
You can read this prayer in two halves.
The first half is God-oriented, the second half is us-oriented. In the first half, which is “Our Father in Heaven, your name be honoured as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” Jesus teaches us to start praying by looking upward. We are declaring who and what are priority. We are reminding ourselves that we are a part of something grander and bigger than what we see with our eyes and hear with our ears. Something that started way before we were even born, and that will continue on long after we’re dead. And that all earthly kingdoms are actually subservient and secondary to God’s kingdom.
Then, in the second half, which is “Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one,” Jesus teaches us to then pray inward and outward. To our specific needs, to reconciliation and forgiveness in community, and to freedom from our hurts, hangups, and habits.
When we flip the order of this prayer, and start with our needs before understanding who and what are priority, we end up sounding like the babblers that Jesus specifically taught his disciples NOT TO BE in the previous verses (Matthew 6:7-8).
In prayer, when we flip the order and start with our needs, rather than starting with worship, this is what happens: Our needs and wants will begin shaping our worship, rather than our worship shaping our needs and wants.
And when this happens, we’ll begin forming and fashioning a king or queen in our own image, and then forming and fashioning a kingdom in our own image. And then we’ll start praying may my kingdom come and my will be done on heaven as it is on earth.
Does this sound familiar?
For generations, this is what happened with the Israelites, before and after this point when they asked for a human king. This is why—despite such clear warning from Samuel—I believe the Israelites went ahead and replaced their heavenly king with an earthly one. And also why this is still happening today.
Just think about what’s going on in the U.S. right now with the election.
Doesn’t it seem like there’s a kingdom conversation going on?
Where as humans, we’re asking, hoping, expecting, and trusting an earthly king to do what only a heavenly king can do for us?
In fact, I wonder if the increasing polarization and tension we’re seeing in our culture is precisely because we’ve replaced our heavenly king with earthly kings, who take, take, and take and just keep on letting us down and disappointing us.
What do you think would change, if in our prayers and in our lives, we got the order right by laying down that inner longing to be king? And any tendency that we have to bow down to an earthly king?
Where—before we even asked for anything or brought up our needs and our wants—we prayed, “May your name be honoured as holy. May your kingdom come. May your will be done.”
How do you think we would change? And the desires of our hearts would change? And the election would change?
Friends, in the end there are only two types of people in this world (I’m paraphrasing C.S. Lewis here).
Those who say to God, “Your kingdom come and your will be done.” And those to whom God says, “Your kingdom come and your will be done.”
Which one are you?
Which one do you want to be?