All Christians, including those who are afflicted with cancer or sons with traumatic brain injuries or who suffer lonliness or any other form of suffering must pray the Lord's Prayer on a daily basis, for this is the reason for which Jesus gave us the prayer. He has told us what God wants to do for us and then he commands us to ask God to do that which he wants to do. The first thing we pray as I pointed out in my previous post is that God would so work that his name, his reputation would be seen and delighted in and promoted by us and all other believers and throughout the whole world.
The second thing which Jesus commands us to ask God to do is this: "Let your kingdom come." The advance of God's kingdom takes place through more and more people submitting their lives to king Jesus. This is a prayer that we and all whom we know bow the knee to the rule and reign of Jesus who is the exalted king over God's kingdom due to his obedient life, willind death and glorious resurrection. HIs kingdom will one day come fully and completely and visibly to this world when he comes again. However, between now and then his kingdom comes, it grows by means of the proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom, the good news that Jesus has made a way for traitors like us to be forgiven and loved and made full members, citizens of God's kingdom through the regenerating work of the Spirit which produces repentatnce from sin and trust in Christ in us.
Thus we pray for God's kingdom to come when we pray that God would by his Spirit and word give new life to dead sinners thus bringing them under the gracious rule of Jesus and under his protecting power. We pray that God would establish his kingdom in the lives of our chidlren and other family members, in the lives of those who belong to our churches, in our friends, neighbors, co-workers, indeed our whole community. We pray for God's kingdom to come when we pray for the advance of the gospel among the nations through the missionaries that we know and those we don't know. We pray for God's kingdom to come when we pray, as John did at the end of his Revelation, "He who testifies to these things says, 'Surely a am coming soon.' Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!" So it is right for us to ask the Lord Jesus to come and establish the kingdom of God upon this earth, visibily and fully and finally.
The third thing that we also pray is that God's will would be done on this earth right now as it is right now being done in heaven, where God lives. God's will is first of all his will to save a people for himself through Christ. This has been God's overarching will and purpose since before he created the world. It is his will to sum up all things in Christ. It is his will that people from every tribe and tongue and language and nation be a part of his people, joining him in that joyful fellowship of eternity. Thus, this prayer has much in common with the preceding prayer. We daily ask God to finish the work, to bring the gospel to all the nations so that his plan to save a people for himself out of all the nations of the world would be completed.
However, God's will also refers to his moral will for his chosen people. We pray that we and all believers would obey God here like the angels obey God's will in heaven. We want to obey God and we want other believers to obey God. The new covenant promise as stated in Ezekiel 36 is that when God gives us spiritual life that his Spirit comes to live in us to "cause us to obey his laws." Thus we ask God to make us willng and able to obey every command he has given to us just as he promised in the new covenant which Jesus purchased with his own blood. Whenever we hear or read a command that God makes to his people we turn it into a prayer for ourselves and for other believers. We agree with the prayer of St. Augustine who prayed: "Lord, command what you will and give what you command." This is the daily prayer of all true Christians for themselves and for the church at large. When we read or hear a command given to us by God we immediately ask God to make us willing and able to do what he commands. This is what we pray whether we have cancer or are healthy. When we pray like this we will discover that we increasingly obey God and that our fellow believers increasingly obey God's will. It is as we pray the Lord's Prayer that we begin to see God doing all that he wants to do, causing his name to be treated as holy, sending his kingdom throughout the world, causing his people to obey his commands as the angels obey him in heaven.
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