Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
- Matthew 6:10

Ten years ago next week, Britain voted Leave. The campaign slogan was "Take Back Control". It was powerful because it captured the feeling that the wrong people are in charge. Brexit didn't fix it, and now we've developed a habit of firing Prime Ministers.

Who is in control? Who should be?

Jesus teaches his disciples to pray: Your kingdom come, your will be done. It's a prayer that says, "May you, God, take back control. Your rule. Your reign. Your will".

The Bible has a word for what that looks like: shalom. Not just peace in the sense of quiet, but wholeness, flourishing, justice, and right relationships. The prophet Isaiah pictures it as a world so saturated with the knowledge of God that a toddler plays safely beside a viper's den. That's how different things would be.

Humanity was made to rule — kings and queens of creation, under the authority of the Creator. We seized more than our authority. And the result is estrangement in every direction: from God, from each other, from creation itself.

That's why we need the Kingdom to come. It comes through Jesus, but not by violent regime change, but by going to the deeper roots. Healing the sick. Freeing the oppressed. And finally, at the cross, meeting the powers of evil and defeating them.

This is a prayer for people hungry for change. One day, the Kingdom will come in its fullness. That’s what we ask for - that the knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea. The question is, will we have spent the time that we have learning to receive it? We are hungry for change in the world, but also in ourselves. May we be people who pray this prayer, and people who are this prayer.

You never get all the goodness out of Scripture in one pass. It takes a lifetime of repeated reading. The Lord's Prayer is designed to be repeated, it's designed to be lived with. The whole of Scripture rewards repeated reading, but there are few passages that repay regular return quite as richly as the Lord's Prayer.

"Our Father in heaven,

May your name be kept holy.

May your kingdom come.

May your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven."

Our Father in Heaven could start any of these three requests. And that final phrase, "on earth as it is in heaven", doesn't just belong to the last line. It colours all three.

Once we begin hearing the prayer this way, it opens up a whole new depth for us. The prayer is carefully shaped. Jesus gives us these parallel lines for a reason. They invite us to meditate. Putting these lines together helps us to discover beauty and depth we wouldn’t otherwise see. We are invited to chew.

And as we chew on them, these words feed not just our minds but our souls. That's why repeating the Lord's Prayer isn't the kind of empty repetition Jesus warned against. We're not babbling to a distant deity. We're praying to our Father. Every time we return to these words, we are placing ourselves inside them and allowing them to shape us.

Scripture invites us to see that we are part of the answer. The prayer is answered in us by our lives being changed by it. As we are changed, God’s name is honoured on earth as it is in heaven. Each time we pray it, we place ourselves again in God’s hands. We ask him to shape our hearts, renew our minds, and make us more like him. We pray for God’s purpose and reputation to be restored.

And as we keep returning to these words, God uses them to form us. Slowly, often quietly, our lives begin to reflect more of his character, and his name is honoured through us.

Matthew 28:16–20

“I have been given all authority” is the declaration of a King. Jesus is claiming the rightful authority of the risen Lord. Jesus says that after His resurrection, the territory of His Kingdom is heaven and earth - the realm where His word is law.

From the beginning, creation was designed for heaven and earth to belong together but human rebellion tore them apart. Jesus came to heal that division.

How will the nations learn that all authority belongs to Jesus? Disciples are to go and make disciples. A follower of Jesus must have a worldwide vision. Vision requires action. It calls us to serve, to organise, to give, to participate. Our service and our participation doesn't finish with us but we must prepare our minds for the possibility that we will be that person that God wants to go out to the ends of the earth. Becoming involved in organising for, praying and giving to world-mission is a normal part of our discipleship.

He speaks of the duration of His authority: to the end of the age. One day heaven and earth will be fully united. As Paul writes:

“Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power… The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
1 Corinthians 15:24–26

Jesus told his disciples to make disciples because we must first become disciples ourselves before helping others become one. There is both receiving and giving. Learning and teaching. Being formed and helping form others. This is describing a continuing process. We are formed as we become involved in helping others to be formed. So some questions to ask ourselves.

Are we:

• allowing ourselves to receive from another?
• open to someone else’s insight?
• humble enough to listen?
• making ourselves vulnerable enough to share what we have learned?
• speaking into another person’s life for their good?