The Lord's Prayer, line by line
Thy Kingdom Come
With this line the prayer lifts its eyes to the horizon. We ask that God's reign would break into the world, His rule of justice and mercy and peace, His way of doing things replacing our own. It is a bold and even dangerous prayer, because to ask for His kingdom is to ask for the end of every rival kingdom, including the little empire of self we each defend. Jesus places this longing at the heart of prayer. We are not meant to be content with the world as it is, nor with our own hearts as they are. We are taught to ache for something better and truer, and to believe it is coming. Pray this and you enlist your desires in the hope of the whole creation for God to make all things right.
“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”Matthew 6:10
“Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”Luke 17:21
What Jesus is teaching here
The kingdom of God was the center of Jesus' preaching in the Gospels. It is God's active reign, His rule breaking into a broken world to heal, forgive, and restore. To pray thy kingdom come is to ask for that reign to advance, in hearts, in communities, and finally in the renewal of all things. It is both present and future. Jesus taught that the kingdom was already among them because the King had come, yet He also taught His people to wait and long for its fullness. This petition trains us to seek first the kingdom, ordering our lives around God's rule rather than our own agendas. It is a prayer of hope that refuses to accept that evil has the last word.
How to pray this line today
Pray this line outward and inward at once. Outward, ask God to bring His justice where there is oppression, His comfort where there is grief, His truth where there is confusion, and His gospel where His name is not yet known. Name real places and real people. Inward, dare to ask that His kingdom come in you, in the corner of your heart still ruled by fear or pride or bitterness. This prayer will cost you something, because to welcome His reign is to yield your own. Ask for the courage to mean it. Then look for the small ways you can live it today, a reconciliation offered, a kindness done, so that your life becomes part of the answer you are praying for.
How this line leads to Christ
The kingdom cannot be separated from the King. Jesus said the kingdom of God was in their midst, because where He is, God reigns. In His healings, His forgiveness of sinners, His welcome of outcasts, the kingdom was arriving in person. At the cross He was enthroned in a crown of thorns, and in His rising He was declared Lord of all. To pray thy kingdom come is therefore to pray come, Lord Jesus, both into our present lives and at the end of all things, when He returns to make everything new. We long not merely for better conditions but for the King Himself. Every time you pray this line, you are joining the ancient cry of the church for Christ to reign fully and forever.
Questions people ask
Is the kingdom of God here now or still to come?
Both, and Jesus taught it that way. The kingdom arrived with Him and is present wherever His rule is welcomed, in changed hearts and reconciled lives. Yet its fullness is still ahead, when Christ returns and every wrong is made right. We live between those moments, seeing real signs of the kingdom now while longing and praying for its complete arrival.
Does praying thy kingdom come mean I do nothing but wait?
No. The prayer shapes how you live. Longing for God's reign moves you to seek it, to forgive, to do justice, to share the gospel, and to yield the areas of your own heart that resist Him. We wait in hope, but it is an active hope. God often answers this prayer partly through the people who dare to pray it.