Proclaim justice to the nations
May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10 NLT)
By Mark Kelly
When Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them to pray, he gave them a template, a set of hooks on which to hang their kingdom concerns as they made them known to the Loving Father.
One of those hooks causes our imagination to soar: May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10 NLT)
What would that look like?! God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven!
Followers of Jesus are citizens of God’s “already, but not yet” kingdom. We need only glance at the news headlines to know the Lord’s will is not yet done “on earth, as it is in heaven.” Injustice and oppression abound, at home and around the world. But by praying the “Our Father,” we declare God’s earnest desire and stated intention to be our own:
We want to see God’s will done on earth, just the way it already is done in heaven.
Like our Loving Father, we want a world in which the poor are not hungry or thirsty, in which strangers are not alone on the street, in which no one lacks decent clothing, or is sick or in prison without someone who cares (Matthew 25:31-46).
Like our Abba in heaven, our hearts yearn to see the anointing of God’s Spirit come upon the Body of Christ, to bring good news of redemption and restoration to the poor, to proclaim release to captives, sight for the blind, and freedom for the oppressed (Luke 4:18). We stand in prayer alongside the Servant who pleased God, to proclaim justice to the nations and deliver the hope of his name to all the world (Matthew 12:18-21).
Prayer must be more than words, however. The way we live our lives — day by day, choice by choice — proves our sincerity in asking God that his will be done “on earth, as it is in heaven.” We declare our determination to obey the one who said, “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you” (John 20:21)
God’s justice is not just for “in the sky, by and by.” The Lord’s earnest desire and stated intention — that his restoring, redeeming love be taken to his lost and broken children — should be the desire of our hearts … and the first priority of our daily lives.
How will you proclaim justice to the nations today?
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Mark Kelly is editor of Multiply Justice. Copyright © 2012 Kainos Press
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