Persistently praying for God's Kingdom to come

In Isaiah 62, God says he is on the move:

“I will not keep silent because of Zion, and I will not keep still because of Jerusalem...” *

He is going to do something big. A nation that is “deserted” and “desolate” will soon “be called My Delight is in Her” (v4), and all the nations will see her glory (v2). God will bring his people back to Zion and rejoice over her (v5). They will be called “the Holy People, the Lord’s Redeemed;... Cared For, A City Not Deserted” (v12).

These are wonderful promises of salvation and blessing, as the Lord gathers his people, in his place, under his rule.

But it seems that God wants to be hassled. He wants to be harassed until he brings it about:

“Jerusalem,
I have appointed watchmen on your walls;
they will never be silent, day or night.
There is no rest for you,
who remind the Lord.
Do not give Him rest
until He establishes and makes Jerusalem
the praise of the earth.” (vv6-7)

The job of the leaders is to call on the Lord God to fulfil his promises, and they must not give up until he does it.

The Lord Jesus seems to be urging something similar in Luke 11. Immediately after teaching his disciples to pray for God’s Kingdom to come (v1), he says this:

“Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I don’t have anything to offer him.’ Then he will answer from inside and say, ‘Don’t bother me! The door is already locked, and my children and I have gone to bed. I can’t get up to give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he won’t get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his friend’s persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

“So I say to you, keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” (Luke 11:5-13)

Here’s the takeaway: “Keep asking”. Be like those watchmen on the walls, and persist in calling on God to send out his Spirit and fulfil his Kingdom promises. (cf.Luke 17-18.)

If you are a leader in your church or home group, does this priority and urgency reflect the prayers you pray in private? Would people in your church be conscious of that constant theme in your times of corporate prayer—of calling on God to do his work of establishing his kingdom in the world? Does your small group spend time praying for God to be active and fulfilling his promises to establish the New Jerusalem?

In fact, next time someone accuses you of being a “God-botherer”, will there be enough evidence for you to be able to plead guilty?

* All Bible quotations are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible

[ I’m grateful to Gary Miller (author of ‘Saving Eutychus’) for sharing his ideas about a biblical theology of prayer and the idea of prayer being focused on calling on God to fulfil his promises. I am looking forward to reading his future book on this topic.]

Author: Ian Carmichael