Pray Like This: Your Kingdom Come

​Let’s make a case for the ten greatest empires/kingdoms of all time.  
#1. The Roman Empire:  Considered preeminent for its sheer power and long-standing influence in military and political systems, art, literature, and religion.
#2. The Mongol Empire: Five times the size of Alexander the Great’s territory, Genghis Khan established a kingdom that stretched from Eastern Europe to China.
#3. The British Empire: Almost a quarter of the earth’s landmass was covered by an empire effective in warfare and trade.

#4. Macedonian Empire: During Alexander’s time this was the strongest empire on the planet.
#5. Ottoman Empire: Started in 1299 and lasting until 1923, with Constantinople as its capital city, this kingdom ruled over most of the Middle East, parts of North Africa and Europe. 
#6. Achaemenid (Persian) Empire: From 550 to 330 B.C. this realm at one point controlled 45% of the world’s population. 
#7. Qing Dynasty: Ruling over China for 300 years, this kingdom’s military organization was considered the best in the world.
#8. Russian Empire: Spanning from 1721 to 1917, Czars ruled from Eastern Europe, Asia and up to North America even defeating Napoleon’s army.
#9. Byzantine Empire: When the Roman Empire was divided, the Byzantines would become exceedingly advanced and would last for over 1000 years.
#10. Egyptian Empire: One of the oldest kingdoms going back to 3000 B.C., the Egyptians created ships and advanced agriculture techniques to enrichen their people.[1]
 
Meditation
Matthew 6:10—Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
 
When we consider the greatest kingdoms on earth, not one of them was able to eliminate pain and suffering, preserve peace or create any kind of sustained utopia. The reasons for this are obvious. Greed, pride and lust (just to name three conditions) constantly undermine any hope for mankind to succeed. Jesus knew all this and instructed us to pray for God’s kingdom to come.

Aside from the 1000 years in which Christ will rule on earth, Revelation gives us a great glimpse of what God’s kingdom will look like.  “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will no longer exist; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer”(Rev. 21:4). Listen to the description of the capital city of God’s forever Kingdom, the new Jerusalem.  
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The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because God’s glory illuminates it, and its lamp is the Lamb.  The nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Each day its gates will never close because it will never be night there. They will bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. Nothing profane will ever enter it: no one who does what is vile or false, but only those written in the Lamb’s book of life. (21:23-27)

​We pray for God’s kingdom to come because we want the gospel to succeed now!  We want God’s will to be exercised (as we will study next) and we want sin and death to be eliminated. God’s rule results in the elimination of earth’s main corrupter—Satan.  We pray for a kingdom characterized by peace and prosperity, holy life centered on profound worship—how awesome is that?! 
 
Inspiration
There is no structural organization of society which can bring about the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth, since all systems can be perverted by selfishness of man.—William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury
 
©2017 Daniel York  ARR. Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  If you would like to receive these devotionals go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)
 


[1]http://www.spike.com/articles/z2soh2/deadliest-warrior-top-10-greatest-empires-in-history