Your Kingdom Come (A Sample Prayer for the Lord's Followers, 4)

We just know there is something terribly wrong in this world. There is pain, sickness, suffering, poverty, calamity, crime, injustice, deception, wars, and many other things. Man has proposed different solutions: education, change in government, economic reforms, etc., yet all these had apparently failed.The petition "Your kingdom come" comes from a heart that longs for the end of all the wrong things in this world.

In a sense, God has always ruled. He owns this planet and all it's inhabitants are his subjects (Psalm 24:1). Yet there is also a sense in which darkness reigns (1 John 5:19). The good news is the rule of the evil one will not last forever. It will be cut short (Rev. 11:15).

The early church went through some of the toughest times in history. So one of it's prayers was "Marana tha" (Our Lord,come!; 1 Corinthians 16:22b). The petitions "Marana tha" and "Your kingdom come" are very similar, for both are expressions of the longing for all the wrong things to end upon the return of the Messiah. I fear that the modern church has become too comfortable in this present world that it no longer prays these prayers with as much earnestness as they did in the early church. We could only say these petitions with sincerity if we are putting our hopes on the the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior (Titus 2:13). We look forward to the day when all earthly miseries end. No more death. No more grief. No more crying. No more pain (Rev. 21:4).

Professor Charles L. Quarles puts it this way:

"Praying for the coming kingdom prevents the disciple from being so focused on this present life that he neglects to prepare for the next. Praying for the coming kingdom empowers him to live selflessly now with the awareness that enormous reward awaits Him in the future. Praying for the coming kingdom reminds the believer that God’s work is not finished and that the best is yet to come."¹

^FOOTNOTE
1. Sermon On The Mount: Restoring Christ's Message to the Modern Church (B&H Academic)

----