Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Matt. 6: 10
Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.
Marie Curie
The
Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the
Mark
Teaching us about the Kingdom of God was one of the primary purposes of the Incarnation.
The Kingdom
. . . but He said to them, "I must preach the
Luke 4: 43
Jesus' life was a living demonstration of the
Now it came to pass, afterward, that He went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the
Luke 8: 1
We can't understand the Christian faith unless and until we understand the
Jesus taught us that there are three dimensions to the Kingdom: Past, present, and future.
There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out.
Luke 13: 28
The Kingdom has always existed. The saints of the past were citizens of it.
. . . nor will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!' For indeed, the
Luke 17: 21
The Kingdom is a present reality. Today's saints are citizens of it.
Your kingdom come.
There are aspects of the Kingdom which will be realized in the future. That is why Jesus taught His disciples to pray for it to come.
To understand how the
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
The Kingdom of God exists where God's will is done. To pray for God's Kingdom is to pray to do God's will.
The Will
Your will be done
DAILY MIRROR (
Another armed robber, jailed for eight years in
decided to hire a private detective to trace the father he
never met. The detective discovered the man's father was the
warden of the prison in which he was incarcerated.
Our attitude towards God's will makes all the difference. Is His will something to which we are resigned; something we resent; or something we embrace gratefully?
God has revealed His will to us in Scripture so that we will obey it. Attitude is everything. How we pray Your will be done makes all the difference in the world.
Praying like
We may pray this petition with an attitude of defeated resignation. We accept God's will because we have no other choice. Maybe things will be better for us next year.
Praying like
We may pray this petition with an attitude of bitter resentment. We don't like God's will. We have no choice but to wait for next year, but we don't like it.
Assuming that Jesus was neither a Cubs' or Yankees' fan (that may be a stretch for some of you), we must assume that the attitude He had in mind for His disciples was one of love and trust. When we pray for God's will to be done, we do so assured of two things:
1. His wisdom. God is the expert in Life. His Word is the infallible rule of faith and life. When we obey His will, we can rest assured that His guidance will always lead us to Life's best.
2. His love. We believe that our Heavenly Father has our best interests at heart.
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
Rom.
We can't believe in Christ's intentional atonement and doubt the love of God. Attitude Is everything!
Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"
He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"
Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, 'Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.' I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life."
"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.
"Yes, it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life."
I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.
Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gunpoint by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him.
Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.
I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place.
"The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied.
"Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live."
"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.
Jerry continued, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, 'He's a dead man.' "I knew I needed to take action."
"What did you do?" I asked.
"Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry.
"She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes,' I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!'
Over their laughter, I told them. 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."
Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.
Attitude, after all, is everything.
O Thou in whom all the saints trusted and were not put to confusion, rid our hearts now of all vain anxieties and paralyzing fears. Give us a cheerful and buoyant spirit and peace in doing Thy will.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen
Blessed are the saints who are equipped with the sound doctrines of TULIP!
The Old Gray Dog
James E. Tuckett
Clearly and Unequivocally Proclaiming What It Means To Be Reformed Christianshttp://www.westminsterfellowship.org
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