The Lord’s Prayer
September 16, 2008 – 9:47 amFrom pages 61-62 of Paul Tripp’s Whiter Than Snow:
Here are the radical words I have been alluding to: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). I must admit that I don’t always greet God’s kingdom with delight. There are things that I want in my life, and I not only want them, but know how, when, and where I want them! I want my life to be comfortable. I want my schedule to be unobstructed and predictable. I want the people around me to esteem and appreciate me. I want control over the situation and relationships in my life. I want people to affirm my opinions and follow my lead. I want the pleasures that I find entertaining to be available to me. I want the ministry initiatives I direct to be well received and successful. I want my children to appreciate that they have been blessed with me as their father. I want my wife to be a joyful and committed supporter of my dreams. I don’t want to suffer. I don’t want to live without. I don’t want to have to deal with personal defeat or ministry failure. What I am saying is that I want my kingdom to come and my will to be done.
In this way I stand with David. In David’s kingdom, Bathsheba would be his wife. In David’s kingdom, Bathsheba would have had no husband. In David’s kingdom he could have Bathsheba and the blessing of the Lord on his reign at the same time. So, David acted out of zeal for his own kingdom, forgetting that he was sent as the ambassador of a greater King. Sadly, I do the very same thing. I get mad at one of my children, not because they broke God’s law but because they broke mine. I get impatient with my wife because she is delaying the realization of the purposes of my kingdom of one. Or I get discouraged with God because he brings the very uncomfortable things into my life that I work so hard to avoid.
“Thy kingdom come” is a dangerous prayer, for it means the death of your own sovereignty. It means your life will be shaped by the will of another. It means that you will experience the messiness, discomfort, and difficulty of God’s refining grace. It means surrendering the center of your universe to the One who alone deserves to be there. It means loving God above all else and your neighbor as yourself. It means experiencing the freedom that can only be found when God breaks your bondage to you! It means finally living for the one glory that is truly glorious, the glory of God.
-Ben
