Today’s blog post concludes our series on the Lord’s Prayer. We’ve been saying that the Lord’s Prayer is a prayer Jesus gave his disciples that reflected his own heart and priorities. As we learn to breathe in this prayer and live it out daily, our hearts become aligned with God’s. We find that the things God cares about become the things we care about. We genuinely become transformed people inside and out.
The last portion of the Lord’s Prayer that we’re looking at is the phrase, “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.”What does it mean to pray this? It means that we recognize that God’s kingdom, power, and glory are what it’s all about.
Now, before we dig in a bit deeper here, I want to point out two things about this last prayer portion. One, it’s a doxology. A doxology is a short expression of praise to God. We often find them throughout the Bible. A good example is 1 Chronicles 29:11, where King David is praying before God’s people. Here’s his doxology:
“Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.”
That sounds similar to what we see here in the Lord’s Prayer, right? And here’s the second point I want to make: many of our bible translations have a note at the end of verse 13 that tells us this doxology of the Lord’s Prayer is not found in the best and earliest manuscripts of the gospel of Matthew. This doxology was most likely added to the Lord’s Prayer a century after Jesus lived. It seems to have been formed based on the doxology we just read in 1 Chronicles 29 and used for public prayer. And even though these words were not on Jesus’ lips, they indeed were on his mind.
Think back to the beginning, where Jesus teaches us to pray for God’s “kingdom to come.” If you recall, we said God is the King over all things. His kingdom is a heavenly kingdom where he reigns perfectly and is in complete control. That kingdom will come in its fullness someday when Jesus returns to put all things right. It is a future reality.
But the kingdom is also a current reality. God’s kingdom is a kingdom of the heart. God reigns in the hearts of those who trust in Jesus alone. To pray “your kingdom come and your will be done” is to pray that God invades our life so that his desires become our desires, and his life becomes our life. We are no longer the king of our lives; God is King over us.
And God’s kingdom is a kingdom of the here and now. Every time we as the people of God live out the good news of Jesus in our words and deeds—by bringing justice and peace, the message and ministry of reconciliation—we see God bringing his kingdom bit-by-bit.
The doxology of the Lord’s Prayer recognizes that God is the true King over all and that he has power over all—”Yours is the kingdom and the power….” God has ultimate power. He has power over creation and power over the hearts of his people. The apostle Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1:3:
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
Think about that! God’s divine power is working in us! God has given us all we need to follow him and flourish in this life. And if that isn’t enough, listen to what Paul says in Ephesians 3:14-19:
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
And Paul finishes with a doxology:
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.
We not only pray and recognize that the true kingdom and ultimate power belong to God but realize that all the glory also belongs to God. What does the word “glory” mean? It can be a tricky word to describe, right? Years ago, I heard the pastor and author John Piper give a helpful definition of glory. He began first by providing a solid definition of God’s holiness. He said God’s holiness is the “infinite value of God, the infinite worth of God.” His holiness is his very being, nature, and presence. I’ve come to understand that another way to say that God is holy is to say that God is good, right, and perfect.
And when God’s holiness is displayed for the world to see, that’s called “glory.”
The prophet Isaiah helps us to see this in Isaiah 6:3:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
The French Reformer John Calvin wrote that the world is a “theater of God’s glory.” God’s glory is on display for the whole world to see!”
Yet, we are not mere spectators in this “theater of God’s glory.” God invites us into his divine drama! God has created us to shine his glory to the world. Jesus told his disciples:
“Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16)
Lastly, God’s kingdom, power, and glory are forever. Daniel 6:26 says this:
“For he is the living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end.”
And what prayer doesn’t end without an amen? What does “amen” mean? It means “let it be.” “Make it so.” Or even more emphatically, “it is sure.”
This doxology points us back to where we began several weeks ago—that prayer starts and ends with God. God’s kingdom, God’s power, and God’s glory are what it’s all about. As we continue to pray this prayer and live out this prayer, we find that God gets the praise, and we get the blessing. We find that God begins to align our hearts with his. And through his power working in us, we find that we become more devoted followers of Jesus, who is himself “the radiance of God’s glory” (Hebrews 1:3).
–Wade