Kingdom Prayer

You can pretty much pray about anything. Far be it from me to try to tell you what you can talk to your Heavenly Father about. He cares about the things you care about. The point of “Kingdom Prayer,” though, is that we also ought to pray for the things that He most cares about.

We are free to pray about presidents and patriotism. Our world is all aflurry about such things right now. I want to make sure we know the difference when I say that we should pray about the King and God’s Kingdom. Kingdom prayer. They are not the same thing.

What is kingdom prayer? It’s a big question. Here is a small part of the answer. We start with what is known as “the Lord’s Prayer,” perhaps better called the “pattern prayer” that Jesus gave to the disciples. 

“Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9–10 NAS95)

This is the first half of that prayer, and it occupies itself with God, His name, His kingdom, and His will (much as do the 1st 4 commandments of the 10 commandments). Regardless of country or kin, we want God and His name to be hallowed. The event that is most highly anticipated is not an election, but the coming of the King. He can put into place God’s will in a way that no president of any party can ever do, and we pray for that day. We want God’s will to be done, even if it is some measure clashes with our own.

So certainly kingdom prayer occupies itself with the kingdom. But kingdom prayer also focuses on readiness for the kingdom. It causes us to examine our own lives, seeking to apply Scripture to areas that have been glossed over, as in this Sundays text, and the one that immediately follows (James 4:13-17, and 5:1-6). Politics will never solve these problems of the human heart. Only God’s Spirit can do so, as we listen and repent.

And because Christians love their neighbors, we also pray for our neighbors and their readiness for the kingdom. We pray that they would hear the Gospel and come to recognize Jesus as Savior and Lord. We seek to live and share that Gospel, to be seen and heard by those who are not now prepared, and need to be. 

Let’s enter into Kingdom Prayer.