3 - LORD'S PRAYER - the Lord´s Requirementsਨਮੂਨਾ

11 – Where the Kingdom Is

The concept of the Kingdom of God is so central that Jesus turned it into a petition to the Father: “Your kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10, NIV).

Even so, Jesus’ followers often struggled to grasp what the “Kingdom of God” truly meant. They expected it to be an earthly empire, one the Messiah would establish. The Jewish people, long oppressed and ruled by foreign powers, were then under Roman occupation. They were waiting for the promised Savior, imagining He would overthrow their oppressors with divine might.

Because of this expectation, the disciples often felt frustrated and even defeated by Jesus’ teachings and the unfolding events that ultimately pointed toward His death on a cursed cross.

Once, when the Pharisees asked Him about this, Jesus replied: “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed. Nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst” (Luke 17:20-21, NIV).

From this, we can see that when Jesus prayed, “Your kingdom come,” He was asking the Father to establish that Kingdom in the hearts of His listeners, with God as King and them as His subjects.

So, each time we pray this, we are inviting God to establish His rule in our own lives, calling Christ to reign within us. Yet, all too often, we resist—unwilling to let the King of Kings have full authority. We still want to rule ourselves.

There’s no point in praying, “Your kingdom come,” if we aren’t ready to accept God’s absolute reign over our lives. Let’s remember Jesus’ words: “The kingdom of God is in your midst” (Luke 17:21, NIV), and that means it is within me, too.