Kingdom Seeking

Probably the most critical component of a Christian's life -- the least understood, and the most underutilized gift from God -- is a believer's ability to communicate with Him through prayer.

The Colonel's own prayer life is instructive.

Even something as simple as praying all too often falls into the category of fails in the Colonel's life.  It's not that he doesn't pray -- it's that he doesn't pray right.

That's right, the Colonel just said there's a right way to pray.  How dare he, you're thinking.  Prayer is personal, you say.  Our communication with God is not bound by constrictive rules, you say.

You're right..., and you're not so right.

In the 6th chapter of his Gospel, Matthew records that Jesus felt it necessary to teach his disciples how to pray.  Why?  Well, the Colonel believes that God's people had a prayer problem.  The people of Israel had ritualized and politicized their prayers.  They had turned the act of what should have been a private communication with their Creator and Savior into a grossly inappropriate public spectacle of self-aggrandizement.

Jesus taught that our prayer life was a deeply personal and private affair -- "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men... But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father..." Matthew 6: 5

But, He didn't stop there.  Jesus went on to provide His followers a model prayer -- not to be prayed ritualistically; but as a complete collection of components (and sequence, as well) critical to our communication with God.

The Colonel fervently believes there was, and is, nothing accidental or happenstance about Jesus.  When he gave His disciples what we now call The Lord's Prayer, every bit of it, down to the very sequence of it, was (is) a perfect example of what our prayer life should contain.  

The Colonel just as fervently believes that Jesus' intention was not that we would ritualistically recite His example of prayer.  That defeats the whole purpose of God's gift to us -- the ability to address Him on a personal level.

The Colonel confesses that his own prayer life all too often is a variation on the theme, "Oh, God. Help me, I'm in a mess."

Admit it, so is yours. 

However, when we look at what Jesus was really trying to convey with the specific components of His model prayer, we see that our communication with God has some very important elements over which we cannot skip if our prayer is to be its most effective.  

Jesus said, "This, then, is how you should pray:

       Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name..."

Let's stop right there and take a deep, thoughtful look.  Jesus is telling His disciples (and us) that we can come to God as we would our own Earthly parent; but, with the utmost respect and recognition of Him as the Creator of the Universe.

That God created the Universe, and gave us the ability to commune personally with Him is the most amazing thing!  Think about the size of the Universe -- hundreds of billions of galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars; in one of which and around one of which, respectively, our planet circles in obscurity.  And, yet, the God who created a Universe in which light, travelling at 186,000 miles per second, takes billions of years to travel from one end of its expanse to the other -- well..., that same God, as great and powerful and hallowed as He should be, still allows each of us to personally approach Him in prayer as if we were talking to our daddy.

Remember, however, that Jesus did nothing by happenstance. When he started His model prayer with recognition of the incomparable greatness of our Heavenly Father that was no mistake.  Jesus includes personal requests of God in His model prayer, but they are prominently preceded by solemn recognition of who God is.  

Jesus continued, "...Your kingdom come, Your will be done..."

We can approach God with our personal requests, but Jesus made it abundantly clear that those personal requests must not be made without our first recognizing the greatness of God, and also, without our next seeking His kingdom and His will.

The Colonel admits that he egregiously fails to seek God's kingdom and will as paramount over his own.  It shames him to realize that he so flippantly approaches God with requests for revelation of God's will in his life, when he is, in reality, seeking God's approval of his own desires.

To seek God's kingdom and God's will is not an exercise in box checking.  God is sovereign, and until we recognize that truth what we want means zip.  When we pray for God's kingdom to come and His will to be done, we aren't asking Him to visit justice on a wicked world.  Jesus' teaching that we should first seek God's kingdom and will is a personal requirement, without which God's provision and grace is not possible.

Don't take the Colonel's word on it -- here's what Jesus said:

"...seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you..." Matthew 6: 33 

So, if you are like the Colonel and need a personal spiritual revival, here's our homework:

Let's be Kingdom Seekers.