The Model Prayer (AKA “The Lord’s Prayer”) – Part 2.

Today we covered line two of ‘The Model Prayer’, which says, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt.6:10; Lk.11:2), and we talked about how both Government and Church are to be impacted by God’s kingdom and His will.

We don’t have to agree with all that our government does or the policies they implement, but we are commanded to pray for them as a matter of importance (See 1 Tim.2:1-4; cf. Rom.13:1-7), and we are to pray that God will establish His kingdom and that His will be done in the churches, and that His Spirit dwells there (1 Cor.3:16-17; Eph.2:19-22).

Even if some rulers try to reject God’s sovereignty, as seen in Ps.2, He has a way of showing them who rules (See Dan.4; Rom.9:14-26; Acts 17:25-28).

God is drawing His elect from East and West (Matt.8:10-11) to the kingdom of God. But they need to be born again (Jn.3,5).

When it comes to praying that God’s will be done on earth, we need to realise that we don’t know everything that is God’s will. He has kept some things secret (Deut.29:29). But there are some things that have been clearly revealed to us as God’s Will for us; such as those things spelled out for us in 1 Thess.4:3 and 1 Thess.5:18.

On the point of our sanctification, please note how sanctification differs from justification. Justification is a monergistic work of God, that only happens one time, whereas sanctification is an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in us and that we must play a part in, thus making it a synergistic work done by the Holy Spirit and us (See the example in 2 Tim.20-21).

When we don’t know the will of God, we should remember Jas.4:13-17 that tells us that we should leave certain things to “if the Lord wills”. Even in prayer, we don’t know what we should pray for as we ought (See Rom.8:26-28).

All of this praying of the first two lines of ‘The Model Prayer’ should take us around 20 mins. But we can also spend some of that time praying in/with the Holy Spirit. But also note that so far we have prioritised ‘Seeking first the kingdom of God’ and not seeking to get our own needs met. But we come to that next!

Michael Robson