A Prayer of Submission

Be Blessed and Inspired
Oct 6
5 min read

When we think of prayer things like worship, thanksgiving, and asking God to meet our daily needs are what most often come to mind. Submission is usually not high up on our list. And it may not sound like an inviting topic, but it too is truly filled with blessings. Jesus included and modeled it for us in His prayer, so it must be important.

Our prayer of submission is based on the second line of the Lord’s Prayer: “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”

To desire and pray for God’s Kingdom to come, we must first know who God is and understand at least a bit about His Kingdom. Well, we know that God is all-powerful, righteous, mighty, and just; He is gracious, kind, and so good to us. He is a sovereign King and a loving Father. And His Kingdom is like no other— it is righteous, holy, perfect, just, loving, safe, and eternal. He reigns from His Throne in Heaven and He reigns in the hearts of His children on earth. His Kingdom continues to grow with each new follower of Christ. We are included as citizens in His glorious Kingdom and our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Jesus promises to someday return and set up His Kingdom here on earth. It will be visible, tangible, and very real. Jesus will take His place on the Throne for all to see. His Kingdom will come down from Heaven and His dominion will extend and be recognized throughout the world. He will reign from Jerusalem as our holy and perfect King. His power, authority, and Kingdom will never end.

The phrase, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on the earth as it is in Heaven,” prompts me to pray that His Kingdom will come alive in and through me and be revealed a bit more in my life. I pray for His return and His physical Kingdom to come soon. I long to see His beautiful face, to walk in the light of His glory; To experience complete wholeness and healing, both personally and in our world. I pray that His Kingdom will come, and His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Imagine how wonderful life could be if we all sought God’s will, we prayed this prayer, and God answered.

In Exodus 19, the LORD gave Moses this message to share with the Israelites: “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. ⁵Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, ⁶you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

God intended for the nation of Israel to be a light for His Kingdom on the earth—a picture of His righteousness, love, and truth. The invitation extends to everyone through Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 9:6-7, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”

It’s Jesus’ Kingdom and we are chosen to be a part of it.

In 1 Peter 2:9-10, the Holy Spirit inspired Peter to write to Jesus’ followers: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

We are privileged with being citizens and heirs to the Kingdom of God. While we await Jesus’ return, we live as ambassadors representing His Kingdom on earth. We find our identity as God’s children, and as brothers and sister-in-Christ; we find our purpose by looking for His plan; we discover our strength by acknowledging our weakness. We find everything we could possibly need through humbly surrendering to His authority.

In Matthew 19:29, Jesus gave us this promise that whatever we give up for His sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”

Regarding His Kingdom, we have this promise from Isaiah 35:10-11: “They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”

This is a glimpse of what we look forward to.

As we study Jesus’ prayer, we see that it is not random; there is order and purpose to His words. There is also a very good reason that He begins with worship. Our prayers flow so much smoother when we worship God for who He is and praise Him for how He works in our lives. It is easy to submit to the Lord when we know that He is good and upright, and that His ways are loving, good, and faithful.

In life we have two options which we can live by: the Theology of the Bible or the Me-ology of ourselves. Me-ology is a “my way or the highway” philosophy and approach to our lives. The problem is that our way often leads us to places of hardship and dead ends. God is so much bigger, and His vantage point is so much broader. He sees the potholes in the road and what’s around the bend. Me-ology chooses the broad road, while Jesus calls us to take the narrow path. At the onset, the narrow path seems tight and constrictive, but once we take our first steps, we see that it is truly abundant and freeing. He offers to guide the humble and teach us His way, which is always the best.

Psalm 25:8-10, “Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. ⁹He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. ¹⁰All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful toward those who keep the demands of his covenant.”