"Thy kingdom come ...

I suppose if I were studying the Lord's prayer I would start at the beginning, but I'm not ... so I won't. I have recited this prayer for over fifty years now. At first it was a short cut - if I felt the need to prayer, I could do it almost without thinking. As with anything repetitive, it begins to take effect and have influence. For at least the past fifteen years, reciting this prayer has become a part of our church liturgy, as the entire congregation recites it. It continues to take on new meaning.

"Thy kingdom come ..." I think I am asking that GOD take over my own kingdom. Reading John Eldredge's Fathered by GOD I was reminded that one of the stages of a man's development is as the king...king of your own family, assumption of leadership - at work or at church. My kingdom is my sphere of influence. Some folks have larger kingdoms than others. Some kingdoms overlap and envelop entire countries. If GOD infiltrated all those kingdoms by request ... this prayer would be answered. He will anyway - at some point in time. I just keep asking that it be sooner than later, but like the 'prayer of Jabez' - I ask only for my kingdom...that's all I've got.

On the other hand, GOD's kingdom already includes the earth, a small parcel of his universe - a grain of sand of the beach of a galaxy of beaches ... and yet he has such great love for that grain of sand that he created and it's inhabitants that he allowed, no he planned, that He himself would become human and live in a small part of that grain of sand so that His kingdom could come...His will would be done. "On earth as it is in Heaven..." almost seems redundant - of course His will is done! His sphere of influence has no boundaries and his will is going to be done, though interrupted and resisted by many, he will have his way. So I just ask that I may be a small part of His will - His kingdom - and as we ask corporately ... His kingdom is fulfilled in my kingdom... and my kingdom becomes larger because I invited him.