“Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.”
Matthew 6:10
It is common to hear this verse quoted as a surrender, as an individual sacrificing their own will to the will of God. The sentiment is correct – as confirmed by Jesus in another prayer in Gethsemane the night before his murder – but it misses the point of this particular section of scripture. To understand how Jesus is instructing us to pray in this verse, it is important that we grasp the cultural context.
The idea that believers are waiting to leave this world for a better one is a fairly recent addition to certain schools of Christian thought, and is in opposition to millennia of Christian – and pre-messianic Jewish – understanding. In this verse, Jesus gives an effective antidote. Early Christians understood that God’s redemption plan was not to pluck His people out of the world, but to restore and bring His kingdom upon it. Their business, then, far from rescuing people from a world in ruin, was to recruit fellow laborers to begin the work of restoration and prepare for the coming kingdom.
When Jesus tells us to pray this way, he is calling us to cast our minds forward to a time when the eternal kingdom will arrive. He is also helping us refocus our attention on the task at hand: tilling the hard soil of a fallen world in preparation for the coming king.
Believer, God’s kingdom will come, and His will will be done, but He is pleased to invite us to join Him in the work. As you pray, consider how blessed we are that the King of Kings includes us in His master plan, and set your affection and longing to the coming kingdom which will last forever and ever.
Definitely a different way for me to think about this scripture. I've concentrated on fleeing this world, not tilling the soil here in preparation.