The second thing that Jesus taught his disciples to pray in Matthew 6:10 was, "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." What are we actually praying when we pray that? Let's look at two basic ideas.

First is the idea of God's kingdom. God's kingdom is the place where he rules as Lord and everyone acknowledges him as Lord. There is a day coming in the future when Jesus will return and everyone will confess that he is Lord (Philippians 2:11). Jesus will eventually rule for all eternity. So part of what we are praying is for him to return so that he can establish his final kingdom. But Jesus also said repeatedly that the kingdom was "at hand" (Matthew 4:17). There's a sense in which believers are part of Jesus' kingdom right now as well. This actually connects to the second idea in this prayer.

In heaven, everything God wills (or desires) to be done is done. If God gives instructions to an angel the angel does what God says. For God's will to be done on earth means that believers (who are part of his kingdom) need to be obedient to God on earth. Many times we focus on questions of God's sovereign will and the things that only he knows. And unfortunately we neglect God's revealed will. There are things that God has recorded in scripture for us to be obedient to. The good news is that we can do God's will by submitting to him and allowing his Spirit to be at work in us.

So what are we praying in this part of the Lord's prayer? It's really something like this: "Jesus we want you to return soon and set up your kingdom for good. But until you do, help us to live like citizens of heaven now. Help us to be obedient to your Word and to do your will on earth. When we do that, we know that earth looks more like heaven."

When you pray as a family...

Ask everyone to share how they can be more obedient to God's will and pray for the Spirit to empower you to do it.
Talk about how the world would look different if believers all followed God's will.
Pray for Jesus to return soon, and for many more people to put their trust in him before that day.