I don't claim to be an example
of a prayerful woman. I'm more of a grasping the hem of His garment kind of a
pray-er, so I share these things because I so desperately
need the reminder!
Thankfully, I am Jesus' disciple, and He is
a kind and good teacher. We have his ocean-deep sermon in
Matthew 5-7 on the Kingdom of God, and right in the middle is this simple, but
comprehensive model prayer.
If you've followed me for a while, you know
I shared a lot of thoughts from Dallas Willards's The Divine Conspiracy last year--a
whole book on Jesus' sermon on the mount. Willard's explanation of what it mean
to pray for God's Kingdom to come has stuck with me.
Willard explains that praying for God's
Kingdom to come doesn't mean we're asking for it to exist, because it already
has and will exist forever and forever. Rather, it means that we pray for the
(little "k") kingdoms of this world to come under God's rule.
When
we pray this we can think of two areas of application, explains Willard:
One is personal. Think of your sphere of influence, your corner of the world.
Your neighborhood, school, workplace, home. The things you do, the
activities you're involved in, the work you invest in.
All
of these are where God wants to act, rule, and reign, ushering in the peace of His
kingdom! Willard writes, "We are therefore asking that, by means beyond
our knowledge and the scope of our will, we be assisted to act within the flow
of God's actions."
Jesus, Your Kingdom come, your will be done HERE with the people and
places I love. Come work powerfully here this year.
The second is more global. Here we think about bigger "structural or
institutionalized evils that rule so much of the earth" (Willard). These
are systems and cultural norms we get swept up in, sometimes seemingly beyond
our control.
Willard
writes, "We therefore pray for our Father to break up these higher-level
patterns of evil. And, among other things, we ask him to help us see the
patterns we are involved in. We ask him to help us not cooperate with them, to
cast light on them and act effectively to remove them."
This
makes me think about institutional racism, something I've been writing
and learning about over the last year.
Jesus, Your Kingdom come, your will be done THERE too, in the places I
can't see any way of fixing. Oh Father, come and powerfully bring Your
peace.
Let's
pray these prayers over this year and see what God will do in us and the world
around us!
I made two things for you this month:
1. A coloring page map through the Lord's
prayer in English and Spanish. It has some fill-in-the-blank spaces where you
can add your specifics to the prayer. For example, under "your kingdom
come," you can add "in my school," "in my office,"
"in my sports team," etc. Under "daily bread," you can write in the things that you need.
You can download the pages by clicking on
the images below.
2. A "your Kingdom come" phone
screensaver image in English and Spanish. You can download the screensaver by
clicking on the images below and saving to your phone.
Thank you for being here! I'm looking forward to sharing this year with you. Comment below and let me know what you think of the printables and how you use them!
Scripture is from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry
of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from LA BIBLIA DE LAS AMERICAS®, © Copyright 1986, 1995, 1997 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission." (www.LBLA.com)
*I'm so happy for you to enjoy my coloring pages and printables for your personal (not commercial) use! Use for Bible studies, church groups or events, and Sunday school classes are all fine! If you're in doubt, I'm happy to answer any questions. All artwork and photos are copyright Marydean Draws. If you share this, thank you (!), and as a courtesy, please link back to this post and not the PDF file.
