Matthew 6:10

¹⁰   Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.

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The most difficult action a person takes in their lifetime is submission to an outside authority, regardless of what that authority actually is. We want to live and let live, letting each independent person live according to his or her own desires. Whoever tries to impose upon someone’s freedom does that which is not right.

The Kingdom of God, however does not come without authority. The word “Kingdom” implies a regent, one has authority or “the power or right to give orders” within that domain. In this kingdom, ours is the Lord Jesus Christ, who has earned this right over our lives by virtue of his death which brings us out of our dead lives of sin into a true and abundant life.

The will of God will never be done in our lives as long as we continue to treat ourselves as the authority. By entering into the faith means that a new authority is over our lives, that we “were bought with a price” and, because of that, we “are not our own” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

If we truly long for God’s “will be done on earth as it is in heaven,”  we must discipline ourselves to be under this authority. This is difficult at first, but we have not been left without a way to do so. Jesus teaches us here that this process begins with prayer. We can never through sheer willpower “will” ourselves to be rid of our will, but in praying God’s will be done, we supplant our own with God’s will. The more we pray this, the more our actions will become the very actions of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5) and we will indeed see the Kingdom come.