Your Kingdom Come
Matthew 6:9-13 (ESV) “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
When control is taken from you or you sense you are losing it, how do you feel?
How do you act?
In the grip of the COVID-19 crisis our planet is facing, I have been forced to face my own responses to control.
For me it started with a physical response, although I did not realize that’s what I was experiencing at first. It was tightness in my chest and throat, a sense of squeezing that threatened to suffocate me and crush every bit of breath from my lungs and peace from my mind.
Time spent alone with my Good Father, asking Him to show me what was happening with my body- that is where I realized that my body was rebelling against all this loss of control.
He led me to a quiet stream, flowing through my heart, His Spirit giving insight, refreshment and comfort. Stepping into that stream, soaking in His presence, surrendering to His movement and trusting in His goodness, I have found my body able to relax. I can let go of my craving for control, my underlying fears and I surrender to His kingdom of peace.
The tightness still rises at times, but I know what it is now. I’ve stopped believing the liar who was whispering to me that it was a heart attack or a stroke. Now when I feel my body’s anxiety response, I take deep breaths
and breathing in I pray,
“Your kingdom come…”
and breathing out I pray,
“my kingdom go”.
Not only my body but my heart and mind have been lured into responses to the loss of control.
These are more subtle.
My personality tends to grasp for control somewhere else. I’ve lost the freedom to come and go from my home as I like, so while in my home, I find myself busier than ever. I busy myself with sewing masks to supply to clinics, hospitals and care homes. That’s not a bad thing. It’s something I can do to help.
But at its core, I have had to wrestle with my deeper motives.
Is it a way to stay in control of the uncontrollable? To escape the sadness and pain and not just sit with this pervasive sorrow for a little while and grieve?
How about you? Have you noticed how your body is responding to this global crisis?
How are you tempted to escape or defy the sadness and loss?
This morning I was reading Jesus’ prayer in Matthew 6: 8-13.
There is a lot of surrender in His words.
To His Father
And His kingdom
And His provision
And His protection
And His control.
I rewrote it in words that dive a little deeper into the waters His Spirit invited me to and I pray that you find refreshment and release for yourself. Ask Him to show you how your body and your heart are responding to our current world events.
I pray that He will bestow revelation and release and peace to you as you invite His kingdom to come and yours to go.
“God Almighty,
You are our perfect Father.
The pure and holy Father that we all want to freely run to and be embraced by in strong, protective, tender, compassionate, and loving arms.
You are our heavenly Father that is far above and beyond every earthly father we’ve ever experienced, however good and however bad.
We acknowledge that You are of a different nature and realm and Your kingdom is an eternal kingdom of only goodness and beauty, truth and light.
We ask that Your kingdom authority, power and order come and be manifested in us and in our world.
Let us make room for You to come and fill every corner of our being.
May all Your kingdom plans find their fulfillment and expression in our hearts, our minds, our emotions, and our bodies.
May Your kingdom of pure love be expressed through us
in our homes,
in all our conversations,
in our acts of service and charity,
in how we spend our time
and how we spend our resources.
May Your kingdom come
And our kingdom go.
We look to you, our good Father, for each and every need we have - spirit, soul and body.
We are hungry at every level and we ask You boldly and with great confidence to fill us.
You are mindful of us.
You know our condition and You would never withhold from us what we truly have need of.
We relinquish all fear that we will not have enough or be enough for tomorrow and we trust in You more than we trust in any other, even in ourselves.
Forgive us for our sins, our shortcomings and for all the debts we have allowed to stack up against us. Only you can release us from the weight and consequences of these, sending them away and freeing us.
And because of this sweet release, we can choose to forgive every wrong that has been done against us. Your kingdom of forgiveness is now being released in us as we forgive them and release each wound and person to you.
And in these days of trial and temptations, we ask You to lead us away from the traps the evil one is laying out for us and from situations where we are vulnerable.
Deliver us from the temptations of
anger
fear
despair
escape
distraction
obsession
indulgence
complacency
and doubt.
Your kingdom power is active in us and we relinquish our control to Yours.
YOUR kingdom come,
our kingdom go.
Your KINGDOM come,
our kingdom go.
Your kingdom COME,
our kingdom go.
~Robin Sturm 4.3.2020
Peace to you my friends.
He is sovereign and He is good!
