Asking our heavenly Father to establish his influence, his will, his values

The Lord’s Prayer: a call to intimate relationship and a vision for the big picture.
 
This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
                                                                                                            Matthew 6:9-10
 
In the first half of Matthew 6, Jesus warns his disciples: “Don’t practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them”. He talks about three activities – giving to the needy, prayer and fasting – which are part of our “practice of righteousness”, of doing what is right, and sometimes we will be seen by others in doing them. But when we do them, Jesus teaches, our focus shouldn’t be on what others think of us, or on ourselves as if the practice is mainly for our own psychological wellbeing, but on the One with whom we are engaging, who is unseen.
 
The teaching in the Sermon on the Mount was very specifically given to Jesus’ disciples (Matt 5:1-2), not to everyone. We cannot become disciples through carrying out Jesus’ teaching; rather, once we have become disciples through faith, then these words form an outline of how we should live. So, for example, we cannot become Christians by giving to charity, praying or fasting in a certain way. We can’t “reach God” by praying in particular places with certain postures, using lots of words, copying others. Rather, when we have been drawn into the company of the redeemed through Christ, as adopted children of God we can say “our Father…”.
 
Jesus was speaking in a context of religious culture creating barriers to the simple loving prayer of humble disciples with their heavenly Father. It could be formal religiosity, or the emotionalism and ritual of pagan spirit-worship. In our culture today there is another huge barrier to prayer: doubt that God exists, or even that there is a spiritual realm. The phrase “our Father in heaven”, so familiar to us, assumes that there is a spiritual reality which can’t be seen physically by people living in the material world.
 
 
 
This spiritual realm shouldn’t be confused with the psychological – the unseen world within the minds and emotions of human beings. God and heaven are not a projection of human fears and hopes, but exist independently of us and before us. This has to be the first point to put across when Christians share the gospel with secular people, otherwise the message that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again to give us new spiritual life is simply incomprehensible.
 
Other religions have grasped that there is a divine presence in the spiritual realm, outside us and contiguous to us (ie, heaven isn’t just in the future), but Jesus here teaches something unique about the true God – he is our Father, who loves us and wants us to know him intimately. If anyone has been brought into God’s family by the only way, through Jesus, they can enter that spiritual realm, that Kingdom of Heaven, approach the mighty and holy God, and address him as “Father”.
 
The disciple comes to the Father in the spiritual realm with an attitude of worship, and longing for God’s greatness to be universally acknowledged: “hallowed be your Name”. We’re saying, may the status, character and authority of Yahweh be fully acknowledged in my life ; may others be more and more aware of his reality; may the world honour and revere him as he deserves. We cannot say this while at the same time pick and choose what aspects of his character and standards we agree with or not, as some in authority in the wider church seem to be doing.
 
According to Jesus’ model prayer, Christians should then go on to pray for the coming of God’s Kingdom and the full establishment of his will “on earth as in heaven”.
 

 
The bible teaches (especially in the book of Revelation, but in many other places as well) that one day, after a terrible judgement and destruction of all that is evil on earth, the purged material realm will be joined with the spiritual. There will be a new heaven and a new earth as one, pictured as a wonderful city with no more crying or pain. Does this section of the Lord’s Prayer mean that disciples of Jesus are simply to ask for the hastening of the coming of that day and not be concerned about things as they are now?
 
When we pray “thy Kingdom come”, we are surely keeping in mind two perspectives, the present as well as the future. We are asking our heavenly Father to establish his influence, his will, his values in our material world, in my life and family, in church, in politics and the workplace. This includes praying for people around us to become Christians and for growth in numbers in church. But Jesus also invites us to pray for God’s will to be done in a wider sense on earth now. Are there problems at work? Financial pressures or health issues? Family and other relationship difficulties? Bigger picture issues of justice and peace as we pray for places blighted by corruption, poverty and conflict?
 
Our Father is carrying out his plans for the future, culminating in the joining of the Church and Christ in the new heaven and earth. Meanwhile he graciously invites us to catch this vision and look forward to it, but he also wants us to pray for his intervention in the present, not just in the church but also in the world.