What Does It Mean to Pray Your Kingdom Come?

In Daniel 2, God gives the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, a dream in which God reveals that even the greatest Kingdoms on the earth are destined to come to an end. The dream tells of human kingdoms rising and falling one after another. But at the end of the dream, God reveals one Kingdom that is different from all others. In Daniel 2:44, Daniel, in interpreting the dream for King Nebuchadnezzar, says, “During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever.” God is revealing through Daniel that His Kingdom, unlike all earthly kingdoms, will never be destroyed. Its coming is certain, and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it.

Because God’s Kingdom is certain, people talk about it sometimes like it is already here. We’re following Jesus’s example when we talk about God’s Kingdom this way. There are several examples in the Bible where Jesus is talking about the miraculous things He is doing and He says, “The Kingdom of God has arrived among you” (Matthew 12:28, Luke 11:20). He says similar things in other places as well. This is a very appropriate way to think about the Kingdom of God: it is here now.

Yet in Matthew 6, Jesus leads His people to pray, “Your Kingdom come soon.” If Jesus is teaching us to pray that His Kingdom would come, “soon,” then we must also understand it to not have come yet. There is a certain sense in which this is what fits our experience. The Bible teaches us in the coming Kingdom of God, “there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.” (‭‭Revelation‬ ‭21‬:‭4‬) This is not anyone’s normal life experience. Even as believers, we continue to suffer and to deal with the destructive works of the devil. There is a sense then in which hearing the acknowledgment from Jesus that His Kingdom is yet coming is a relief. When we are dealing with situations in life that are full of grief and destruction and pain and sickness—things that will not exist in God’s forever Kingdom—we don’t have to assume there’s something wrong with us—God’s Kingdom is not fully here yet. We’re still earnestly following Jesus’s instructions by praying that it would come soon.

It is helpful to understand God’s coming Kingdom as both “already” and “not yet.” This is the period of history we live in. God’s Kingdom is “already”—Jesus has come and died for us so the outcome of history is sure. His Kingdom will prevail as God showed Daniel thousands of years ago. Sin has been defeated. Eternal life has been purchased, and all who believe in Jesus and give their lives to Him can share in that eternal life. The Devil’s works will be destroyed. It’s a certainty. God will rule over all of Heaven and earth. There is no other possible outcome. One day there will never again be death or sorrow or crying or pain. We can count on God for it.

When we ask God to do something miraculous, we’re asking Him that He would send a drop of His Kingdom to us in the present—we’re asking that a dose of His Kingdom would come now. It’s right for us to pray for people to be healed while we live in the “not yet” part of history. It’s right for us to pray for relief from suffering for ourselves and for those around us. What we’re asking of God is that He would send His Kingdom—which is certain to come in fullness one day—but that He would send us a crumb of it now. 

There are times, perhaps many times, when we don’t get the answer to the prayer that we want in this life. We pray that God’s Kingdom would come and drive the sickness out of our loved one’s body, but the sickness never leaves. We pray that God’s Kingdom would come and rescue us in a particular way from whatever crisis we’re dealing with, but we don’t experience the deliverance we were hoping and praying for. In these moments, we have to remind ourselves of two things. The first is that Jesus starts us off in prayer by reminding us that God is our Father. (Matthew 6:9) Because He’s our Father, we can trust Him. Because He’s our Father, He knows how to take care of us better than any earthly Father ever could. (Matthew 7:11)

Read More: If God Doesn’t Feel Like Your Father

It is safe for us to trust God as our Father Who is both perfect and perfectly loving to take care of us in just the right way. When His Kingdom doesn’t come as fast as we want or in the way that we want, we can trust His love for us. Those choices He makes may never make sense to us. That’s okay. The important thing is to stay in relationship with Him and remain convinced of His perfect love for us.

These prayers that aren’t answered in the way we want them to be are part of the difficulty of living in the “not yet.” I think that’s why Jesus has us pray to our Father first and why He reminds us of our Father’s holiness second. We need to remember God’s love and His perfection when we pray. Part of our lives as believers in Jesus living in the “not yet” is that we pray that God’s Kingdom would come soon, even when we’re disappointed by the areas of our lives where His Kingdom has not broken through. His Kingdom is good. His Kingdom is coming. One day the already will overtake the not yet, and all that will be left is perfection, peace, and life in the presence of God.

So much of what we find ourselves praying about is what we need from God. Jesus reminds us here that we don’t need to feel ashamed of that. God is our Father. He wants to meet our needs. He’s ready to meet our needs. In fact, He’s the only one who can. In addition, God calls us to pray that His Kingdom would come. It’s not because He needs help bringing His Kingdom. Remember, Daniel 2 shows us that His Kingdom is inevitable. This instruction of Jesus reminds us that His Kingdom is coming—this world is not our home and there is a better future for us waiting in eternity. It also reminds us that God is ready and waiting to intervene with His Kingdom when we call to Him. His Kingdom is a place beyond pain and sorrow. We need that Kingdom to breakthrough into the not yet. This breakthrough is part of what we pray for when we pray “your Kingdom come.” 

The early church (and the Old Testament believers) prayed like this—we’re in good company when we pray for God’s intervention. It also means we do what the writer of Revelation did when he prayed, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20) When we become convinced of the love and perfection of our Holy Father, it puts a longing for His Kingdom in our hearts. It makes us live like the Old Testament believers who the writer of Hebrews described saying, “They were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. (‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭11‬:‭16‬) This world is not our home. Jesus is our home. His coming Kingdom is our home. We’re waiting for it to come, and we’re praying to our holy Father that it will come soon.

We have God’s assurance that, no matter what it looks like now, His Kingdom is coming. Nothing can stop it. No one can stop it. We pray that it would come soon. We pray that we would taste it now. We long for it–it’s the home we were made for. It’s the place where we’ll finally be in a face-to-face relationship with God. It’s the place where we won’t suffer anymore. While we wait, we ask God to draw us into a closer relationship with Him. We ask God to intervene in our crises. We ask God that His Kingdom would come.