“Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in Earth, as it is in Heaven,” Matthew 6:10 KJV.
My beloved Southern Union Constituents, there is a difference between saying a prayer and living a prayer. Many people recite the Lord’s Prayer from memory, but Jesus never intended these words to become merely a religious recital. He intended them to become the believer’s daily reality.
When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He did not begin with their needs. He began with God’s name. He did not begin with their problems; He began with God’s purpose. Before He said, “Give us this day our daily bread,” He said, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done.”
That is because until God’s rule reigns in us, His blessings cannot fully rest upon us. There is a kingdom in this text. Not a kingdom built with bricks and mortar. Not a kingdom defended by armies and weapons. Not a kingdom established by constituency meetings and election processes or political power. The Kingdom of God is God’s sovereign reign breaking into human hearts. Wherever God rules, His Kingdom has arrived. Wherever Christ is obeyed, Heaven has gained another foothold on Earth.
The tragedy of our generation is that many people want the benefits of God’s Kingdom without submitting to the King. We want His peace without His principles. We want His promises without His precepts. We want His blessings without His authority. But Jesus said, “Pray for the Kingdom.” Because when the King arrives, everything changes. Blind eyes begin to see. Broken hearts begin to heal. Families begin to reconcile. Communities begin to hope. Lives begin to reflect the character of Christ. The Kingdom changes the atmosphere because it changes the people who live in it.
Then Jesus said, “Thy will be done.” That may be the hardest sentence a believer ever prays. It is easy to say, “Lord bless my plans.” It is harder to say, “Lord replace my plans with yours.” It is easy to ask God to open the doors we have selected. It is harder to trust Him when He closes the doors we wanted to walk through.
Every believer eventually comes to Gethsemane. Every disciple reaches a place where faith must bow before God’s wisdom. Jesus Himself stood beneath the olive trees with the shadow of Calvary before Him. The weight of humanity’s sin rested upon His shoulders, yet He prayed, “Not my will, but Thine be done.” His will may include tears, but joy comes in the morning, and certainly when the New Jerusalem is established on this planet after the second resurrection. His will may require waiting, but those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
Then one day the prayer Jesus taught will become the promise John saw. The kingdoms of this world shall become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. I am looking forward to the Kingdom that God will set up which will never be destroyed. Until that glorious day, the Church must keep praying. Keep serving. Keep believing. Keep surrendering. Keep declaring with confidence, “He that shall come, will come, and will not tarry.”
Southern Union | October 2026
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