In my early twenties I would attend recovery meetings in a community building next to a local coffee shop. It was somewhere along East McDowell in Phoenix. The memory of my time in the downtown desert is blurred by live-in rehab, halfway houses, and being surrounded by broken people. Everyone seemed doomed to repeat the very acts they knew would inevitably kill them–or at least destroy everything around them. Recovery from addiction is a hard road and for some reason it often becomes a group effort. One friend gains a year of sobriety and another suddenly dies after cancelling out the last five. Everyone witnessed it; lived through it; felt it.
And so we would meet often, very often. We would meet daily and even multiple times a day. We would introduce ourselves if new. We would grieve what had been destroyed thus far in our lives. We would reminisce with laughter and with tears. We would meet because the dragon of addiction never really seemed to die. It might hide or take a new shape, but I don’t remember anyone ever outrunning or out cunning it. Addiction was a hard road–so we would meet. And when we would meet I distinctly remember reciting corporately the Lord’s Prayer. Though my temperament towards anything sacred at that time was mostly profane, the words were unaffected by my ignorance or sacrilege or both. With that said, I am thankful that my twenties and the dragon of addiction exist on the other side of the cross. So what I previously said in rote, I am now beginning to fully understand as an incredibly impactful prayer.
While every segment of the prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) that Jesus modeled is of equal importance, I want to discuss the specific line: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.” Kingdom seems to be an outdated word and heaven seems so far away. But if Jesus is the eternal Son of God then His words cannot become antiquated or inefficient to humanity’s progression. His words persist in the same manner that He persists: always and forever. So then what exactly are we asking when we pray for God’s heavenly kingdom to come to earth? In short we’re asking for the inauguration of heaven into our homes. And as clever as that sounds, it is far more dangerous than we would think. When Jesus removed our inability to be reached by the Lord, we tried (and still try) to replace that with methodology and bricks and mortar. Revival tents and local church buildings have their use, but Jesus has always had His sights on the hearts and minds of men. And if the inside world of one is truly changed (read born for the second time), then their outside world will change–that is, their home or ‘kingdom’ will also change. The Father is not looking to set up shop in a church parking lot, but instead He is desiring that the ways of His house be inaugurated within our own house.
Inauguration is a word becoming more and more hijacked by political pomp and persuasion. But in essence it is the commencement of something new. So when we agree with Jesus’ model of prayer, we are asking for the Lord to send His intentions and His governance into the core of our lives: word and deed, song and silence, public and private. This is the inauguration of heaven on earth–specifically the part of the earth that we each populate and interact on. And that is a very important part because it is your part.
So when I think back to that coffee shop off of East McDowell, I had become a caricature of shallow youth. I lacked resolve and because of that lack, words were just words, even the words of a Savior. But thankfully one that takes the title of Savior is able to save. Thus, a prayer for the Father’s kingdom to come is the cornerstone prayer for all of humanity at all points in history. To pray for the inauguration of heaven is the greatest request that could ever come from earth. In other words, heaven does not need to ask for itself.
Excellent Travis