Inviting God’s Kingdom into Your Life

Matthew 6:9–13 reminds us how Jesus taught us to 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 this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

Oftentimes, we start our prayers in a negative or need-based posture. We begin by praying about what is important to us or confessing our sins and feeling disqualified to pray. But Jesus wanted to refocus our prayers — at least at first — away from us.

We begin prayer through relationship, not transaction. Yesterday, we learned to focus on the One who has all power and who loves us deeply. Then we invite His Kingdom and His authority into our earthly reality when we say, “Let Your Kingdom come, Your will be done.”

Two things happen here.

First, we surrender our will to His will. We acknowledge that we need Him and His power to order our lives, and we choose to submit to His ways.

Second, we declare to our earthly realm that His authority reigns. We are not submitting to the patterns or ways of this world. We are welcoming God to establish His Kingdom in our lives — even when it feels unfair, which is often actually for our good. We need Him to interrupt the natural order and release the supernatural order.

Honoring Him as our Father God and welcoming His Kingdom are the first steps to seeing heaven come to earth — for our good.

Prayer

Father God, thank You for teaching us how to pray. Thank you for giving us a way to not be victims of this world and its power. I ask that You would let Your Kingdom come and Your will be done in my kids’ lives. Show them how to invite Your power into their relationships, their finances, and their assignment from You. We seek Your Kingdom first so everything else can fall into place. You, and You alone, hold our world together even in its brokenness.

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