Your Kingdom Come!

Week 4 Lenten Devotions

Lent Day 20: Thursday March 11

Theme for the Week: The Lord’s Prayer as a Way to Ask for Help

Passage for the Day: Luke 11:1-4

¹He (Jesus) was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” ² He said to them, “When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

³Give us each day our daily bread.

⁴And forgive us our sins,

for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.

And do not bring us to the time of trial.”

Reflection:

Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them how to pray. If the disciples had to ask for help learning how to pray, then it is not surprising that we need help learning to pray. The Lord’s prayer provides a helpful structure for prayer. This familiar prayer can be a good way to open or close our time with God. If we use it as an opening to our prayer time, it helps to center and focus us on being present with God.

One of the phrases in the Lord’s Prayer that captures my attention is “Your kingdom come.” What does it mean when I tell God in prayer that I want God’s kingdom to come? God certainly does not need my permission or my help to make the kingdom come. But by praying this petition, I acknowledge that God is in charge and that I am looking forward to a time when the world will be as God wants it. In praying this petition, we say that we are looking forward to a time when peace and justice will prevail, when all will be well-fed, well-housed and well-provided for and when resources will be shared equitably. We are looking toward that proverbial time when every person under his or her vine and fig tree will live in peace and unafraid, the time when swords will be turned into plowshares and the time when we will learn and desire war no more. When we pray this petition, we are praying intently for the time when God’s rule will win out over human wants, desires and demands. As Martin Luther reminds us in the Large Catechism, when we pray, “your kingdom come”, we are praying that God’s kingdom might come to us. We are asking that we have a chance to experience God’s rule here on earth and that we will be able to be participants in God’s wondrous rule in eternity.

Prayer Themes: Pray that I may be faithful in my prayer life and fully present when I reach out to God in prayer. Pray that God’s Kingdom may come to me; that I might be able to be part of God’s Kingdom here on earth and that I will be a part of God’s eternal Kingdom. Pray for God’s peace, justice, mercy and equitable distribution of resources.