The Lord’s prayer is a powerful tool for shaping our prayers, for our Lord instructed us that this
is how we should pray. He did not say this is necessarily what we pray but how we pray. This
doesn’t mean we are wrong to pray the Lord’s Prayer, but it is a reminder that it is good to
remember that its petitions are a model for the kinds of requests to bring before the throne of
God. So, having arrived at the second petition, let’s remind ourselves of what that petition is and
what it means with the help of the Shorter Catechism:
Q. 102. What do we pray for in the second petition?
A. In the second petition, which is, Thy kingdom come, we pray that Satan’s kingdom
may be destroyed; and that the kingdom of grace may be advanced, ourselves and
others brought into it, and kept in it; and that the kingdom of glory may be hastened.
As I reminded you this past Sunday, believers live as citizens of two kingdoms. On the one hand
we are citizens of the Kingdom of God. Our greatest allegiance is owed to the Triune God who,
through Christ, broke into history and worked redemption by exercising his Kingly hand over the
kingdom of darkness.
On the other hand there is a kingdom of this world. 2 Corinthians 4:4 calls Satan the god of this
world. The catechism calls this kingdom, Satan’s kingdom. We are, unfortunately, citizens of this
kingdom as well. We are subject to earthly powers and rulers who work against God and His
ways.
And so, we are to pray, that by the work of God’s Spirit through the church and through the
power of the gospel, that Satan’s kingdom will be destroyed. That is that we and others will
persevere and overcome its power and influence. Sometimes we do this by submission and
sometimes we do it by resistance (Acts 4 and 5).
And, we are to pray for the advancement of Christ’s Kingdom. We are to pray and work that the
gospel will conquer the hearts of unregenerate people and bring them into submission to the
ways of God, by joining the corps of the Redeemed, aiding the church in its mission and
ministry. For as the church grows so the manifestation of God’s rule will grow, making known the
reign of God in the world until Christ returns.
May the Lord bless when His people pray, “Thy Kingdom come….”