The kingdom has come!

Finding God in our day to day lives can be one of the easiest things to miss.  Yet, many people find hope in a God who has come and who is bringing His kingdom on earth.  This hope that people find is through the coming kingdom of God.  There are many facets of the kingdom and how the idea and hope of the kingdom has brought to us.  Continuing to look to the Lord's Prayer for support of our Christian mission to bring about the kingdom is important to understand.

Again, the Greek text is important to highlight when looking at the Lord's Prayer (Matt. 6: 9-13).  The Greek says, "ejlqevtw hJ basileiva sou` genhqhvtw to qevlhmav sou, wJV ejn oujranw/: kai ejpi gh:V` (Matt. 6:10)." 

This text, I believe, is translated as, "the kingdom of yours it came (!); your will it has been done (!) as in to heaven and on earth."  The previous verse about God's holy name allows the prayer to flow through a process of worshiping the holy God of the universe to call on God's name to bring about His kingdom.  This kingdom, it has come, it has been done by God's will, and it has been done in heaven and on earth.  This are things that have already happened, but the Greek does not stop there.  Both words "came" and "done" evoke the idea that is not only defined as what has already happened, but what is still happening.

As I said in my last blog, God invites His creation to participate through a divine and human relationship.  This relationship was brought was the purpose for creation.  God walked on the earth during the time of Adam and Eve.  Yet, some believe that God does not walk amongst us even today.  If God would want to have a relationship with His creation, yet did not walk with us in our world today, it would deny the very being of God.  So, why do we say that God walks among us yet live as if God is not even a thought within our minds?  A key dynamic of this bringing about of the kingdom is that it shows that God is still at work.

God offers us to participate with Him through creation.  This divine and human participation is brought on by the coming of the kingdom.  The kingdom is what is known as the already/not yet.  The kingdom is here and in our midst, but it is not fully brought about.  God has His own timing to bring about the fulfillment of His kingdom.  We are not to be spectators in this call to participate with God.  Humanity is called to be in relationship with God and in bringing about the kingdom.

There are many ways to bring about the kingdom and some are described within the rest of the Lord's Prayer.  Yet, there are poor and hurting people in the world.  We look around and we say where is God, but God's kingdom only comes when His people participate with His call of the coming kingdom.  Humanity must be willing to take a step of faith to reach out to the lowly and hurting.  When there are people in need, humanity must take a step of faith to help them.  Our world is in desperate need of people to reach out and help those in need.

I pray that you may pray this prayer in a new light.  That you may feel a burden to participate with God through the coming of His kingdom.  It is very hard for humanity to know what to do when we have needs of our own.  However, I believe that God will take care of us as well when we pray faithfully and ask for His kingdom to come on earth and for God's will to be done.  I pray that our world may be a people willing to reach out to the lost and broken for the sake of God's coming kingdom.