your name, your kingdom, your will

 

Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven."

Matthew 6:9-10

The simple phrases of the Lord's Prayer are filled with deep significance. If I really prayed like Jesus taught me to, my heart would engage with the Father's  heart. I'd care about God's name, God's kingdom, and God's will. I'd want what God wants because I'd be concerned about God's holiness. I'd want what God wants because I'd want His will done in the world.

Lord,

I must confess that though I have a head full of the definitions of Your holiness (complete with proof texts), my heart is often far from Your holiness to my own sinful shame. You have clothed me with Christ's righteousness, but I need to confess and repent. I need to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts". Oh God, You are holy (so holy that magnificent archangels echo that one word back and forth across Your throne forever) and may my life be a way for You to show Your holiness! Would You make holiness sound out and echo from my heart and into my life?

I want Your will to be done, my God! I want to help make disciples of all nations. But I focus on my own kingdom way too much. Lord Jesus, give me a driven focus and a singular consuming vision of Your kingdom in whatever days of this life that I have left! I want Your kingdom to come on earth as I obey You, follow You, and make disciples of the people You bring my way!

Amen