Early this past summer a dear, sweet, powerful, honest-to-God minister of the Gospel reached out and grabbed me with this challenge:
Why do we spend so much time praying for ourselves, our needs, our fears, our hopes and desires — or even the hopes, fears, needs and desires of others?
Jesus taught us to pray for one thing before anything else:
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come …”
Everywhere Jesus went, he announced “The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent!” “The Kingdom of God is among you.”
In preparation for Jesus’s ministry, John the Baptist preached the same thing: “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.”
Jesus sent out his disciples, saying, “As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’” (Matt. 10:7)
He taught us, very plainly, to seek the Kingdom first, before anything else. Everything else will follow. (Matt. 6:33)
He taught us to pray for the Kingdom before food, forgiveness, or safety.
“Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Above and before anything else, this should be our first desire.
Is it?
I’ve begun disciplining myself to stop and pray for the Kingdom, first. To pray very simply, and then stop and listen, before praying anything more: “Your Kingdom come.”
(First, to be honest, I had to pray that God would restore my desire to pray. I’d struggled with that for awhile, recently. I find that happens to me from time to time. So now, that desire is returning, and with it, this new wrinkle.)
Then comes the next challenge. Do I know what in the heck I’m praying for?!
And so I’ve begun re-reading the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. It could be Matthew, Mark, or John. But I love the fact that Luke and Acts were written together as a single piece (by the disciple, Luke, to Theophilus), and they tie together everything from the announcement of John the Baptist and Jesus’ birth to the first disciples’ courageous ministry after Jesus’ death and resurrection.
As I read, I’m asking seven questions. I think they’re great questions. I think they’re God’s questions — that is, questions God wants us asking:
- What does the Kingdom of God look like? What happens when it comes?
- To whom does it come?
- What must a person do to enter into the Kingdom and enjoy its riches?
- What kinds of worldly forces try to stop the Kingdom of God?
- Why can’t they stop it? How does the Kingdom keep winning? (Which it does, against all odds.)
- ARE there forces — perhaps within us — that CAN stop it from coming?? What are these forces? How do we overcome them?
- And now, with regard to our own condition, what should we be longing to see happen among us? Among whom will it happen? How can we best help it to happen? What will it look like when it comes?
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