Matthew 6: Aligning Your Prayer with God's Purposes

Introduction

At The Tron Church in Glasgow, William Philip continues a series on prayer based on the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6. The week before, he showed that prayer, according to Jesus, is not a matter of techniques, programs or formulas. "It is not a practical manual," like the ones you find in bookshops. It is not even a matter of religion: prayer is a real relationship with God the Father, through Jesus Christ the Son.

This message focuses on the first half of the Lord's Prayer, the end of verse 9 and verse 10: "May your name be kept holy. Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." For the preacher, these three requests are a prayer that our priorities would line up with God's.

"True prayer is not about manipulating God into giving us what our desires demand. True prayer is God shaping us into children whose desires are filled with his perfect desires."

Outline of the Message

1. Prayer Begins with a Relationship

True prayer does not seek the praise of others and does not put piety on display to look like a person of prayer. Nor does it try to manipulate God.
It is simply the conversation of those who know God as Father. "You cannot speak to God if you do not know him," and you can only know him as Father through Jesus the Son.
Jesus says it plainly in Matthew 7:21: not everyone who says "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom, but the one who does the will of the Father. And in verse 24: the one who hears his words and puts them into practice.
Prayer therefore begins when you come to know God through the Son, in a relationship of obedient faith. It can be neither the fraudulent prayer of the Pharisee, made to impress, nor the frantic prayer of paganism, which tries to wrench something out of God's hands.
The first step is the one in Matthew 6:33: "But seek first God's Kingdom, and his righteousness." "If we do not put first things first, everything else will be wrong." If they are in their place, the rest of prayer will find its place.

2. May Your Name Be Kept Holy

The English word "hallowed" is no longer very common. William Philip mentions Bill McLaren, the late rugby commentator, speaking of the "hallowed turf" of Murrayfield, where pulling on the Scotland jersey was the greatest honor. To hallow is to revere, to honor, to treat as holy and precious.
Our first desire toward the God who created us, redeemed us and called us to be his children is that his name, his reputation, be treated with great respect.
In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, Isaiah 29:23 uses the same word: they will make holy the Holy One of Jacob and stand in awe of the God of Israel.
Peter takes up exactly this language and tells us to set Christ apart as Lord in our hearts (1 Peter 3:15). To hallow is to put Christ on the lone throne of your heart and give him a pre-eminence you give to no one else.
This is no coincidence: you can only honor the name of God the Father by honoring the name of Jesus. Jesus tells the Father that he has made his name known (John 17:6, 26). And the Father answers: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again" (John 12:28), at the cross.
That is why God gave Jesus the name above every name, so that every knee would bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11). The first step in hallowing God's name is to bow the knee before Jesus.

3. An Exclusive and Missionary Prayer

The Lord's Prayer makes no sense if you do not honor Jesus Christ as Lord. The preacher says it bluntly: a Jehovah's Witness, a Mormon or a Unitarian who does not worship Jesus as God the Son, equal to the Father, does not hallow God's name, "no matter how many times they recite the Lord's Prayer."
He enjoys listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing a beautiful version of the Lord's Prayer with Andrea Bocelli, "but they are simply singing a song."
So the Lord's Prayer cannot become a generic interfaith prayer, as if everyone were praying to the same God: "No, not at all, says Jesus." It is a very exclusive prayer, because God's name is fully known only in Jesus Christ.
It is also a missionary prayer: asking that all over the world men, women, boys and girls would bow the knee to God by bowing it to Jesus, and give up every other name.
Finally, it is a personal prayer. Christ reigns alone on the throne of your life: "There is no coalition government where Jesus gets one vote among many."

4. Let Your Kingdom Come

The kingdom of God is the exercise of his reign. On the lips of Jesus it is not a vague notion or a general spirituality: the kingdom of God is the reign of Jesus.
The whole Gospel of Matthew is about the king who is coming: son of David, son of Abraham, born king of the Jews. He brings light into darkness (Matthew 4:16), and his first public word is: "Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17). Wherever Jesus is, the life of the kingdom appears on earth.
The kingdom has begun, but it is not yet complete. In the parables of Matthew 13, it grows like yeast hidden in dough and like the mustard seed that becomes a great tree. One day it will be revealed in all its glory.
To pray "let your Kingdom come" is to long for that great day and to turn your prayer toward the future. It is also to believe that the reign of Christ is spreading now through the preaching of the gospel. The reformer John Calvin said that the gospel is the scepter of Christ's kingdom.
The kingdom grows by the sowing of the Word. The enemy will always try to spoil the harvest, "but you have to keep sowing," says Jesus, and the harvest will come: thirty, sixty, a hundred times what was sown.
"If you want a great harvest, you will devote yourself to sowing the seed that leads to it." If our prayers show no interest in mission and evangelism, we are not really praying "let your Kingdom come."

5. Let Your Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven

This request is another way of saying "let your Kingdom come." It is a call for the renewal of the whole earth, so that the dwelling place of man and the dwelling place of God are brought together again, as in the garden of Eden.
It means waiting for the return of Jesus, the new heavens and the new earth where righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13). It also means waiting for the day when we ourselves will be set right: "when he appears, we will be like him" (1 John 3:2).
But John also says: "now we are children of God." So this prayer asks that those who are united to Christ and filled with his Spirit would look a little more like him each day, starting now, in the middle of the disorder of society.
Jesus says it in the Sermon on the Mount: "Even so, let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). And those who practice and teach his commandments will be called great in the kingdom (Matthew 5:19).
The world will only get a glimpse of the glory of the coming kingdom if it sees something of it today. William Philip compares this to a movie trailer, which makes you want to come back and see the whole film.
The church is a colony living on earth for heaven, "a little outpost, a little embassy of the kingdom of heaven." As the Roman armies established the Pax Romana, we pray that the Pax Christi, the peace of Christ's reign, would be established among the people of God.
Paul describes it in Colossians 3:12-15: put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; forgive one another as the Lord forgave you; put on love, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. "It is the culture the gospel creates that gives weight to the call the gospel makes."

6. Not My Will, but Yours

This is not first of all a prayer for other people to change. Like charity, change begins at home.
"Let your will be done" assumes a necessary denial. Jesus showed it in Gethsemane: "not my will, but yours, be done" (Luke 22:42).
Christ's will will not reign in churches and among Christians until it reigns in our lives, and that will not happen while our own will remains on the throne. "Denial, submission, death."
In practice, it may be an ambition to let go of, a relationship God has challenged you about and that you must give up, or the acceptance of a painful road, the consequence of a past sin, without bitterness, even if things are not as you would like them to be.
Jesus tells you: "If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24). That is where all true prayer begins.
"Not my name or my reputation, but may your name be kept holy. Not my kingdom or my ambition, but let your Kingdom come. Not my will, but let your will be done," in the church, in ministry, in the small group, in relationships. When your heart walks with Jesus instead of pulling against him, only then will your prayer be right.

Key Takeaways

Prayer is neither a technique nor a way to manipulate God: it is the conversation of children who know God as Father through Jesus.
The first three requests of the Lord's Prayer put Matthew 6:33 into practice: seek first the kingdom and righteousness of God.
You can only hallow the Father's name by honoring the name of Jesus as Lord, which makes the Lord's Prayer both exclusive and missionary.
To pray "let your Kingdom come" is to long for the harvest and therefore to give yourself to sowing the gospel.
"Let your will be done" begins with "not my will": a personal surrender that lets the world see a foretaste of the kingdom.

Personal Application

When you pray, are you first trying to get what you want, or to have your desires shaped by God's?
Does Jesus reign alone on the throne of your life, or does he share power with other voices in a kind of coalition?
Do your prayers show an interest in mission and in people who do not yet know Christ?
What can your colleagues, your neighbors or your family see of God's kingdom in the way you forgive, bear with others and love?
What ambition, relationship or difficult road is God calling you to hand over to him, saying: "Not my will, but yours"?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does the Lord's Prayer begin with God's name, kingdom and will?

For William Philip, these three requests apply Jesus' words in Matthew 6:33: seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness. If first things are in their place, the rest of prayer finds its place. Prayer is not for manipulating God, it lines up our desires with his.

What does "may your name be kept holy" mean?

To hallow God's name is to revere it and treat it as holy and precious. The preacher connects this request with 1 Peter 3:15: setting Christ apart as Lord in your heart. You can only honor the Father's name by honoring the name of Jesus, the name above every name (Philippians 2:9-11).

Does praying "let your will be done" only mean waiting for the end of time?

No. It does mean waiting for the new heavens and the new earth, but it is also asking that Christ's reign be seen already in our lives and in the church. Like Jesus in Gethsemane, this prayer begins with "not my will, but yours": a surrender, a submission, a dying to self.