Your Will be Done

 ". . . Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth like it is in Heaven."

This is where things start to get confusing. I mean, God's Kingdom is never explained completely in the Bible. And how am I supposed to know what His will is?

I'm not a theologian- at least, not formally trained or anything.  But even I can see that this is surrender.

I think praying for God's Kingdom to come is kinda like praying for His big-picture plan. You know, where He comes to rule over the nations and where everyone admits that He's God. I tend to get in a rut really easily, expecting each day to be the same, letting the world go by. But God's got big stuff planned. Huge! Trumpets,-lights-earthquakes-bodies-rising kind of huge! Things aren't just fine the way they are. Change is coming! And I should be praying for it, looking forward to whatever God's got planned, instead of sitting around letting things be.

The other part of God Kingdom, though, is already happening. We as a church represent the current Earth sector of it. So, I see praying for the church to be ready, to be getting her warrior game on, as also praying for God's Kingdom to come. (I.e. Be present here, Be active here.) There are plenty of hopeless, hurting people just looking for some good news. And, like the apostle Paul said, how can they hear if no one goes and tells them about it? That's why the church needs to be constantly energized and empowered by God's Spirit. We're in a battle, fighting for what was stolen from our King forever ago in the Garden of Eden. We need help.

And then there's the matter of God's will. What does He want? Sometimes I have such a hard time with this! But there are some things that are always true, and always God's will, just because they're part of who He is! I often start there, and as I'm praying, if God wants me to pray something specific, He'll tell me. Sometimes really bold things have come out of my mouth and kinda shocked me, because I used to be pretty timid with God. But they always came true, which served to grow my faith a little bigger, help me be a little bolder, and proved God's power to myself and others.

Back to my earlier point, these things are always true:

God wants relationship with people. He wants to save them from their miserableness and teach them what love means.

God wants the church to grow. Not just in numbers, God also wants us to grow up, in a way. He wants leaders with integrity, workers with dependability, and people of faithful passion to work together in unity, with Him in charge.

God wants us to learn, individually. We're all on a journey, cliche as that is, and we need to go to Him for help finding our way. Whatever you know you're getting lax on in your relationship with God, talk to Him about it. I know I tend to have trouble making time or investing energy to actually participate in devotions. I tend to just read a chapter in my Bible, maybe read in a devotional book a bit, and call it good. I don't always try to actually understand what's going on. That's honestly why I'm doing this Lord's Prayer thing: to recalibrate, start a habit of intentionally hanging out with God and listening to, not just talking at, Him.

Often as I pray about the things I am certain of, God will add to them. As I'm praying for people to accept Him as the Great God that He is, names will come to mind out of the blue. Or I'll suddenly realize the true importance of a community issue, and pray for the church's effective involvement. Or I'll have a  random epiphany that the Lord's Prayer would be perfect for a week-long personal study! 😁

Obviously, not everyone is wired the way I am! But I would suggest that if you're having trouble deciphering God's will on something, start with what You know. Once your heart is open and surrendered, it's a LOT easier to hear what He's saying.

I hope this makes sense! May we all be able to come to God with surrendered confidence.

~Dolly