Pray:
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’
Matthew 6:9-13 (NIV)
Read:
31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
Luke 1:31-33 (NIV)
What does it mean for God’s kingdom to come? Jesus came to establish God’s kingdom. He did not come to establish a geographic kingdom, but He came to rule and reign in our hearts and lives. We are to pray “Your kingdom come, Your will be done as earth as it is in heaven.”
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:3 (NIV)
The kingdom belongs to those who are poor in spirit. To be poor is to have nothing, to be a beggar. To be poor in spirit is to be humble. We have nothing we can brag about, but only what God has done for us. We must give up our right to our own will and attitudes. To be humble is to recognize that what we have and who are we did not come about through our own skill and talent. It is a result of God’s hand, the efforts of others, and circumstances we do not control. It is only in recognizing we have the right to nothing, that we can have God as our source, our everything. When this happens, we are tasting His kingdom here on earth.
Pray:
Lord,
Give me only You. Help me to recognize that all I have and all that I am comes from You. I submit my heart to You as my only source of identity and help. Make me rich in Your kingdom, a wealth that comes not from what I have or what I can do, but one that comes from Your presence in my heart, in my will, and in my life.
Amen