Study of Prayer ~ Week Two Class Lesson

“Thy Kingdom Come; Thy will be done, in earth and it is in Heaven...” (Matthew 6:10)      


The Kingdom of God is a perfect place and is meant for holiness. We cannot enter into the holy presence of God on our own. He cannot have anything but holiness near Him.

Remember Moses? He was in the presence of God when He met with God on Mt. Horeb.

Exodus 3:1-6 (NIV) 1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
 4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
   And Moses said, “Here I am.”
 5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father,[a] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

Moses couldn’t come closer to God, because God was holy and knew that Moses couldn’t live inside His  holiness because of Moses’ sinful nature. This sinful nature entered mankind when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. God later set up a system, in the tabernacle Moses would build, for temporary covering of sin through blood sacrifice. Later God would provide a permanent way for our sins to be covered by the sacrificial blood of Jesus His Son.

Psalm 103:19 (NIV) The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.

God’s Kingdom is firmly established. It will never fade of perish like other kingdoms of the world because it is ruled by an everlasting King. This King is Jesus. He is superior to all.

For now, God allows evil to happen on the earth because of free will, but know this, Jesus will make everything right. He has conquered the evil one on the Cross and one day He will obliterate all evil from this world. He will establish His Kingdom on the earth. To be a part of His Kingdom, we have to accept Him as our King.

This is why Jesus specifically placed, “Thy Kingdom come...” in this example of prayer. When we pray this phrase, we accept Him as our King and ultimate ruler over who we are and what we do. He becomes Head over us and we are protected from the wrath of God, who will wipe out all evil in the end.

Psalm 145:13 (NIV) Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does.

God is trustworthy and faithful. He keeps His promises. Prophecy has been and is being fulfilled. Know this, God’s Kingdom will take over and wipe-out all who oppose Him.

We must acknowledge Him in our prayers for a reason and that is to lay our will down for His perfect will.

“Thy will be done...” In God’s Kingdom His will shall be done. There’s no if’s and’s or but’s about it; His will shall be done. No matter what happens in this world, God's will is the final say.

“In earth as it is in heaven.” This means that in heaven, a holy place where God lives, nothing unholy can exist. Jesus teaches us to pray for God’s will to come to earth and eventually take over the will of this world. However, He has to take over our individual lives first.

By praying for God’s will over our will, we are accepting His will by faith. We step in-line with Him and our hearts beat in rhythm with His.

Matthew 26:39 (NIV) Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Jesus set the example during His time alone with God in the Garden of Gethsemane. He laid down His will for the heavenly will of His Father. We too, must lay aside our will for His. I am so grateful that He did lay down His will because I would have no hope. Because of Jesus I have hope, an eternal hope.

We’ve learned from Jesus so far in the Lord’s Prayer to:

Acknowledge God as God.
Realize the enormity of God’s Kingdom.
Accept His will over ours.

Why do we need to do these things first?

We acknowledge God as God because we want to have the respectful connection to our Creator.
We accept His Kingdom as our Kingdom with Jesus being our King.
We take on His will over ours because His is perfect and ours is not.

Jesus knew the orderliness of God and He laid out this perfect outline of Prayer for us to respond to God properly.

As we move on to this next week’s lesson, “Confession to God in Prayer,” let’s lay our will down for His as we acknowledge Him as God and King.