Matthew 6.9-10.
Matthew 6.9 KWL - “So pray like this: Our Father who’s in the heavens! Sanctify your name.”
Some Christians wanna make it particularly clear which god we’re praying to. Partly because some of ’em actually think they might accidentally invoke the wrong god (and y’know,
As I said in the Lord’s Prayer article, Jesus isn’t the first to teach people God is our Father. Many a
God’s will in heaven and earth.
Jesus instructs us to pray,
Matthew 6.10 KWL - “Make your kingdom come. Make your will happen both in heaven and on earth.”
The
Thing is, we’re reading an awful lot into that word
“Of course he does,” is the knee-jerk reaction. If God gets his way anywhere, certainly it’s in heaven. Because God’s the absolute ruler of heaven. Either it’s where his throne is,
Thing is, if heaven’s where God absolutely, sovereignly always gets his way, why’d a war break out there?
Revelation 12.7-9 KWL - 7 War came to the heavens: Michael and its angels battling the dragon;
- the dragon and its angels battling back 8 and failing.
- No place was found for them anymore in the heavens.
- 9 The great dragon was thrown out, the primeval serpent which is called devil and Satan.
- The deceiver of all civilization was thrown to earth,
- and its angels were thrown out with it.
We assume God always gets his way in heaven, but at some point in heavenly history he clearly didn’t. ’Cause
Y’see, since God is love,
Satan’s very existence indicates not just earth has a sin problem. Heaven has one too. And heaven needs to be fixed just as much as earth.
New Heaven.
Hopefully you’ve read Revelation’s happy ending:
Revelation 21.1-4 KWL - 1 I saw New Heaven and New Earth:
- The first heaven and first earth went away, and the sea isn’t there.
- 2 I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven, from God.
- It’d been prepared like a bride was arranged for her man.
- 3 I heard a great voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s tent with the people:
- He’ll pitch a tent with them. They’ll be his people, and he’s ‘God with them,’ their God.
- 4 He’ll plaster over every teardrop from their eyes.
- Death isn’t there. Neither grief, shouting, nor toil is there. The first things went away.”
Have you ever noticed the scriptures’ various statements about New Heaven? How, at the End, God’s gonna wipe away the existing heavens, and make them new too?
Used to strike me as weird too. That is, till I realized heaven’s not perfect. That’s why Jesus has his followers pray, “Make your will happen both in heaven and on earth.” Both places need fixing—and to be made one, so God can live in New Jerusalem with his people forever.
Jesus hasn’t gone to heaven where things are shiny and perfect, and is just waiting for just the right time to roll ’em out to us. He went there to prepare a place for us.
So when we’re praying for God’s will to be done in heaven and on earth, we’re praying for God’s kingdom in this world… and we’re praying for God’s kingdom on New Heaven. We’re praying for the present and the future. We’re praying the kingdom at the End is as perfect, as full, as God wants it to be. Since he wants to save everybody,
Yep, our prayers affect the construction of New Heaven. Because these prayers change our attitudes. Change how we’re gonna think about God’s kingdom. Change how we’re gonna contribute to his kingdom. Make it not just his kingdom, but our kingdom.
If we want New Jerusalem filled, we’re gonna participate in its filling. We’re gonna invite more people into the kingdom. We’re gonna share Jesus with more people. We’re gonna include more people in our kingdom activities. We’re gonna make more disciples for Jesus. We’re gonna strive to actually do God’s will. New Heaven begins with what we’re doing here on earth.
We mustn’t just passively pray, “Thy will be done.” We gotta do God’s will, and go get New Heaven some future inhabitants.
So keep praying this.
