Your Kingdom Come

Fear. Anxiety. Uncertainty.

It only takes a few minutes of scrolling through the headlines before our hearts are troubled. On-going bombings in Ukraine. Mass casualties in the battle between Israel and Hamas. Threats of an American government shutdown as the speaker is thrown out. A new strain of COVID. Increasing numbers of vulnerable families coming to our borders. Climate change causing natural disasters around the world. 

I don’t know about you, but a large part of me wishes I could stick my head in the sand and ignore it all. If I don’t know what’s going on in the world, then I don’t have to stress about it, right? My own problems are enough to worry about.

Only… I can’t do that, can I?

Can we?

1 Corinthians 12:26 says, if one part suffers, every part suffers with it. When people in the world are suffering, we all suffer with them.

There is evil in this world. Bad things and the suffering that goes along with it will continue for as long as this world exists. We are told in the Bible to expect it.

We are also told we don’t have to accept it.

"I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change," said Angela Davis. "I am changing the things I cannot accept."

God's work is to bring His kingdom on earth. If we would busy ourselves with His work, what a difference we could make in the world around us. But, as St Augustine said, "Without God, we cannot; without us, God will not." God doesn't do the work without us. This is why we are here on Earth and why He has delayed His return - it is our work. Our job. To bring His kingdom on earth.

What does God's Kingdom look like? 

We see glimpses of it in the Bible. God's Kingdom is love, peace, joy, and community. God's Kingdom is equitable, where everyone has a share fitting to their needs. Where no one is without - without love, without peace, without provision. God's kingdom is health and happiness and supporting one another. We would love our neighbors as ourselves.

John, the disciple Jesus loved, wrote this: "But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth." (1 John 3:17-18)

This side of Heaven, there will always be difficulties. There will always be evil.

We are not supposed to sit back and let it happen. We are supposed to fight back.

Not in the January 6th or taking up arms type of way, but in a spiritual way.

Evil prospers when we care more about ourselves - our comfort, our prosperity, our fame or fortune - than we care about others. Evil also prospers when we allow fear to freeze us into inaction.

I was challenged in church today at how action starts with prayer. This does not mean the rather bane promise of "thoughts and prayers" that sometimes church people toss out at others suffering. These words have become an empty platitude. Partly because we aren't actually going to pray. Partly because we use prayer as an excuse for our inaction. 

But, that is not to say there isn't power in prayer.

I wrote a blog before on how God doesn't owe us squat. Many times the things we ask for are selfish or self-serving. God has already given us so much - life, love, mercy, compassion, and beauty. He doesn't owe us anything else.

BUT. God waits. Waits for us to ask. Waits for us to invite Him. Waits for us to make room for Him to work.

God is a gentleman. He won't force anything on us. But when we ask, when we ask for His Kingdom, for His will, for His word, He delivers.

I know people who have seen miracles the size of Biblical times. They've seen people who have come back to life. People who have been healed from untreatable illnesses and disabilities. I've heard of couples whose marriages were saved, individuals who were freed from years long addictions, and those who walked away from gangs into a more abundant life.

I have seen miracles, too, though maybe not on this grand of a scale. My son, for example, nearly died during his birth and should have brain damage - but he doesn't. He is a walking miracle. I also met a woman who was completely healed from breast cancer after a couple of teenagers on a mission trip prayed for her. Miracles do happen. 

God doesn't always intervene. 

But sometimes. Sometimes He does. And when He does... it'll blow your mind.

If the headlines make us uncomfortable or frighten us -there are two things we can do.

The first, is to pray. Lift up our needs and our broken world. Pray for peace. Pray for protection. Pray for wisdom. Pray for love to win.

The second, is to act within our personal spheres of influence. There's not much I can do for the situation in Ukraine or Israel other than pray and perhaps donate to an organization at work in that area. But I can do things here - I can volunteer, I can donate money or items, I can show love to my neighbors, my colleagues, my clients, my encounters. Perhaps, I can even extend support to the local Jewish or Palestinian community, knowing how much they are suffering right now.

May God open our eyes - my eyes - on how to bring His Kingdom come in each of our own spheres. If we are all doing our part, we can make this world a better place, one life at a time.