Lesson 15: After This Manner Pray, part 3
“Your kingdom come.” The Father is a King and has a kingdom. The son and heir of a king has no higher ambition than the glory of his father’s kingdom. In time of war or danger this becomes his passion; he can think of nothing else. The children of the Father are here in the enemy’s territory, where the kingdom, which is in heaven, is not yet fully manifested. What is more natural than, when they learn to hallow the Father-name, they should long and cry with deep enthusiasm: “Your kingdom come!” The coming of the kingdom is the one great event on which the revelation of the Father’s glory, the blessedness of His children, and the salvation of the world depends. On our prayers too the coming of the kingdom waits. Shall we not join in the deep longing cry of the redeemed: “Your kingdom come”? Let us learn it in the school of Jesus.
“Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.” This petition is too frequently applied alone to the suffering of the will of God. In heaven God’s will is done, and the Master teaches the child to ask that the will may be done on earth just as in heaven, in the spirit of adoring submission and ready obedience. Because the will of God is the glory of heaven, the doing of it is the blessedness of heaven. As the will is done, the kingdom of heaven comes into the heart. And wherever faith has accepted the Father’s love, obedience accepts the Father’s will. The surrender to, and the prayer for, a life of heaven-like obedience, is the spirit of childlike prayer.
“Give us this day our daily bread.” When first the child has yielded himself to the Father in the care for His Name, His Kingdom, and His Will, he has full liberty to ask for his daily bread. A master cares for the food of his servant, a general of his soldiers, a father of his child. And will not the Father in heaven care for the child who has in prayer given himself up to His interests? We may indeed in full confidence say, Father, I live for Your honor and Your work; I know You care for me. Consecration to God and His will gives wonderful liberty in prayer for temporal things. The whole earthly life is given to the Father’s loving care.
Prayer: Lord, You once said: “No man knows the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” And again: “I made known unto them Your name, and will make it known, that the love wherewith You have loved Me may be in them.” Lord Jesus, reveal to us the Father. Let His name, His infinite Father-love, the love with which He loved You, according to Your prayer, BE IN us. Then shall we say correctly, “OUR FATHER!” Then shall we comprehend Your teaching, and the first spontaneous breathing of our heart will be: “Our Father, Your Name, Your Kingdom, Your Will.” And we shall bring our needs and our sins and our temptations to Him in the confidence that the love of such a Father cares for all.