5 December Build your kingdom here
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10)
Rend Collective have taken up this verse and expressed it in their song. In three verses, they ask firstly for the Holy Spirit to increase in us and build up our faith. What a great way to start anything that we do in our lives! Lord more of you and less of me, help us to know your will, help us to hear your voice and nudging, help us to be your hands and feet and help us to trust in you more. Amen?
It feels a little strange to be asking for more faith, because once we believe isn’t that enough? Regardless of your answer to that, surly more of God in us is better, but it’s a scary thing asking God to “invade” the bits of us we don’t want to let him into.
We ask this because of the hope we have in Christ. Not the hope that we will get a certain present for Christmas or that a certain sports team will win, but a deeper hope for a time to come. A time where pain, sorrow, division and inequality will be no more, where greed and power have no place and love has conquered all. That hope, as the song chorus says can be realised in part now. As we live our lives as followers of Christ, we can (in part) bring some of the kingdom to come, on earth now. The request is for God to build his Kingdom here, but actually it is for us to do that every day in our own way and collectively with the church.
Matt Smith
Lord of all creation, of past present and future,
Remind us daily that our prayers and words of faith and hope
require the actions and deeds of our own hands and feet.
Thank you for the hope that you have given to us
of a future yet to come, in your new kingdom with you.
Give us more faith!
Fill our hearts and minds with your presence!
Grant us the power and courage to step out for where your will leads us!
Help us to Build Your Kingdom Here, we pray!
Amen
