Thy Kingdom Come.....

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. Matthew 3:16

As I was meditating on the Lord's prayer this morning, I was thinking about what it means to bring God's kingdom to earth. When Jesus prayed in Matthew 6 verse 10 "your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven," what did he really mean? How can we bring heaven down to earth? What I came up with is love. We simply can't love properly without the Holy Spirit. Jesus knew that. When he left he knew we would be hopelessly inadequate to do His work without help. Big help. God sized help.

I think about why it is so hard for us, even Christians, to love each other. We let our differences, our self, our past, old hurts, and everything else get in the way. But the Holy Spirit moves all that aside when we give Him room to work. He makes it possible for us to truly love each other, and not just put up a fake pretense of it, really love each other. That's the kind the world needs to see. Real genuine love....the world sees enough of the other kind, and it doesn't last. True love comes from God and has the power to change lives. Change eternity.

When we really start to love each another the way Jesus did, it can't help but spill out into the world. Rend the Heavens and come down Holy Spirit! Give us cooperative hearts that let you work within us so we can see more of Heaven here on earth.

And....

Lord, let me have a prayerful heart in dealing with people so that I may love them with Your love. Amen

"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." Matthew 6:15