Our Greatest Hope on Election Day: Our King Has Come

Whether we are pleased or disheartened by the results of today’s election of the American president, there is one thing we all need to remember, especially if we are Christians: we are citizens of an everlasting kingdom, and our King has come and will come again. Meditate on this good news from my new devotional, From Recovery to Restoration: 60 Meditations for Finding Peace & Hope in Crisis.

Your Kingdom Come

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

As we survey the ruins of a marriage after an affair, a neighborhood after a flood, a world after a global pandemic, the cry that rises naturally to our lips is, “Your kingdom come.” What do we mean when we pray this prayer—whose kingdom is it, what is that kingdom like, and what will it mean for this kingdom to come?

Whose kingdom is it? It is God’s kingdom, the kingdom of the One who created heaven and earth and declared it “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Although God’s original creation was deeply damaged by sin, because of his “holy stubbornness,” his “refusal to accept ruin,” God repaired the broken creation in the most unlikely of ways, by becoming man and dying on a cross.

God’s kingdom is characterized by shalom: “heavenly wholeness, the right alignment of everything” and the belief that shalom is “not beyond recovery.” It is the realm of grace that announces the rule of grace. In this kingdom, the righting and restoring of all things began with Christ’s death and resurrection. When our King returns, this kingdom will be fully consummated, with shalom reigning forever in the now-restored new heavens and new earth.

God’s kingdom is the kingdom of heaven that opposes itself to the kingdom of darkness. To pray “Your kingdom come” is to pray that Jesus would today defeat the wily efforts of Satan, the prince of darkness who seeks to captivate our attention and energy for his purposes (Colossians 1:13; Ephesians 2:2). Christ the King has already triumphed over the god of this world on the cross; one day, he will return to establish his kingdom and cast Satan into the lake of fire forever (Revelation 20:10).

To pray “your kingdom come” is to repent of our own tendencies to create small kingdoms by placing ourselves, our loved ones, our work, our homes, or any other thing we see as ours, on the throne of our lives. It is to pray, “Your kingdom come and rule in my heart; your will, not mine, be done in my life.”

To pray “your kingdom come” is to seek to serve our King by fulfilling our mission to grow and multiply his beauty on this earth today. It is to move toward an ex-wife in the hope of co-parenting in harmony; it is to pull out moldy drywall in the hope of restoring a flooded home; it is to care for the sick and broken in the hope of healing soul, if not body.

As we recover from crisis, it is easy to recognize the disaster this world has become through the ravages of sin. To pray “your kingdom come” is a daring prayer, an imaginative prayer, a prayer that acknowledges the gap between what is and what ought to be. And yet, every day, we must persist in praying it, in announcing to the world, “Our King has come; he will one day come again.” And when he does, shalom will reign forever.

Prayer

Our Father,

Your kingdom come. May your reign of grace be the rule of the day.

In the name of Christ our King. Amen.

Further Encouragement

Read Matthew 6:7-15.

Listen to “King of Love” by Steven Curtis Chapman.

For Reflection

Into what broken places would you like to see God’s kingdom come?