Kingdom - 16 June 2009

"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.  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]

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven….

In essence these two statements are the same.  In order for God’s kingdom to come on earth then His will must be done.   How is that going to happen?   How can we ever make everyone do God’s will?   The answer is, we can’t, because we all have free will.

The only person I can directly influence is myself.   I can decide to do God’s will today and I can accept that whatever happens to me good or bad should be accepted as God’s will in my life because my life has been given into His hands.

As you may imagine there is a lot of my prayer centred on that. 

I am not good at doing God’s will and need His help with that.

I am not good at knowing God’s will and need to listen for that.

And I am not good at accepting God’s will and very often need His wisdom and help with that too.

But there is always that hope that as I pray and attempt to realign myself with God’s will that my life will become a little slice of the kingdom of Heaven on earth and that is why Jesus told us to pray this way.

Today I am going to use a prayer that I have borrowed from Alcoholics Anonymous

God, I offer myself to Thee — to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt.      Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will.                                 Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life.
May I do Thy will always!  Amen.