Pray in This Way (Part Four)

“In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.”
(Matthew 6:9–13)

When we pray that God’s name would be “hallowed,” we are praying that God’s name, as well as the Person that name represents, would be “holy,” that is, set apart—reverenced, glorified, given more importance than anything else—by us and all men. This model prayer, in effect, both begins and ends with this thought: all glory belongs to You, O God, and may our first and last and every prayer, thought, and act in between be to that end.

Next we pray that God’s kingdom would come. In one sense, of course, His kingdom has come already, especially as Christ, God’s Anointed, has come, conquered sin and death in His own death, rose from the dead, and now reigns on high at the right hand of the Father. But in another sense, the kingdom is still “coming,” still being established on earth, as men and nations are converted to the Christian faith. So when we pray for God’s kingdom to come, we are praying that His reign would spread—in our own hearts, in our own families, in our own communities, as well as throughout the families and communities and nations of the world. We are praying that every knee indeed would bow and every tongue confess Jesus as Lord—King—over all the earth.

And as we pray that God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven, we are praying that His will would be performed perfectly, for that is exactly how His will is obeyed by the angels in heaven—perfectly, willingly, and cheerfully. This goes hand-in-hand with our prayer that Christ’s kingship would be honored throughout the world and that His name would be hallowed: If we long for God’s glory and we long for God to be king, then we also long for His will—His “law”—to be perfectly obeyed. And if we pray for all of this in general—that men everywhere would do God’s will, obey His Word, live lives that are entirely pleasing to Him—then we are nothing but hypocrites if we do not first sincerely pray that these things would be so in our own lives.

“Heavenly Father, we pray Your name, Your Word, Your works, and Your Being—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—would be honored and glorified and set apart in our hearts and throughout the world. We give thanks for our King, Jesus, and we pray that all men and nations would enjoy Your righteous and benevolent reign. We pray that You would convert all nations to Yourself, that the bounds of Your kingdom would be stretched to the ends of the earth, and that we would be fit instruments in Your hands for the building of the same. We pray, dear God, that Your will would be done, Your Word obeyed, in our hearts, in our families, in our churches, in our nation; and we pray, dear God, the same for the entire world. Your glory, Your kingdom, Your will—these things we desire above all else and ask for them in Christ’s name. Amen.”