Your Kingdom Come, Your Will be Done - Tim Horman
What does it actually look like to pray for God's kingdom to come while refusing to surrender to his will? It's a bit like asking for a king to rule your nation but insisting you get to make all the decisions. Or like praying for healing while refusing to take the medicine. We instinctively know something doesn't add up — yet if we're honest, this is often how we approach prayer.
This week, Tim Horman continued our As in Heaven series on the Lord's Prayer, exploring the second and third petitions in Matthew 6:10: "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven." These two requests, Tim reminded us, cannot be separated. To pray one without the other is to fundamentally misunderstand what Jesus is teaching us about prayer, discipleship, and the nature of God's kingdom.
You can watch or listen to the full sermon below.
The Two Petitions That Cannot Be Separated
Tim opened by addressing a tension we all feel: we desperately want the world to be different. We long for an end to suffering, injustice, illness, grief, and the relentless weight of living in a broken world. We see the footage from conflict zones, we experience our own losses and traumas, and we know in our bones that this is not how things are meant to be.
And we're right. The world should not be this way.
That's why, Tim explained, at the heart of the biblical story is God's desire and purpose to transform this world from a place of suffering and death into a place of blessing and life — even better than it was in the beginning. When Jesus teaches us to pray "Your kingdom come, your will be done," he's inviting us first to imagine what that could look like, to dream of a world without pain or sickness or injustice, and to long for it with everything we are.
"We Christians should therefore be the most hopeful people on the planet. It doesn't mean that we don't feel the grief or the pain. Of course we do. It doesn't mean that we aren't allowed to lament or feel afraid. It's just that we don't need to let those things destroy us, to cause us to completely fall apart as those without hope."
But this prayer isn't just about passive longing. Tim pressed the point: if we're going to pray honestly for the kingdom to come, we cannot simply be passive observers of suffering, wringing our hands on the sidelines of history. We must also pray "Your will be done" — which means getting involved in what God is doing, investing our hearts and minds and actions and bodies and wealth to participate in the coming of God's kingdom, however incomplete that participation may be.
The two petitions always go together. You cannot truly want God's rule without also surrendering to his will. And yet, this is exactly where we struggle.
The Audacity of Imperative Prayer
Tim pointed out something astonishing about the grammar of this prayer. In the original Greek, "kingdom come" and "will be done" are not merely polite requests — they are imperatives. They're command verbs. Not "do it, God" (as if we're bossing God around), but rather, "Let it be done according to your word."
Jesus is teaching us to pray with bold, authoritative faith — the kind that comes with the force of a command. We're praying for God to do what only God can do: to hallow his name, to bring his kingdom, to accomplish his will. We're not asking God to help us bring in the kingdom or do his will through our own efforts. We're commanding, in Jesus' name, that God himself would act.
As Tim put it, quoting Daryl Johnson:
"The prayer is not, let us hallow your name. The prayer is not, let us bring in your kingdom. The prayer is not let us do your will. The prayer is, Father, you do it. You hallow your name on earth as it is in heaven. You bring your kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. You make your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
This raises an obvious question: why would God need us to pray like this? If God's kingdom has already come in Christ (as Jesus announced in Mark 1: "The kingdom of God has come among you"), and if his return is already guaranteed, why would we need to add our small voices to something God has already determined to do?
What Do We Mean by "Kingdom"?
To answer that question, Tim took us on a brief journey through biblical theology. The word "kingdom" appears over a hundred times in Jesus' teaching alone, and the diversity of how it's used can be bewildering. Sometimes the kingdom is described as an inner spiritual reality (Romans 14: "the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit"). Sometimes it's a future inheritance we'll receive when Christ returns (Matthew 25: "inherit the kingdom prepared for you"). And sometimes it's a present reality we've already entered (Colossians 1: "God has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son").
How do we make sense of all this?
The key, Tim explained, is understanding that the biblical word "kingdom" doesn't primarily mean a territory or realm (as we think of the United Kingdom), but rather the authority, the rule, the reign of the kingship itself. In the Bible, a kingdom is not a land or a people — it's the exercise of royal authority.
So when Jesus says the kingdom of God has come, he means God's sovereign rule and authority has arrived in his own person. When we pray "Your kingdom come," we're not asking for heaven as a place to arrive — we're asking for God's kingly sovereignty and power to be manifest, for every enemy of righteousness to be put to flight, for God alone to be king over all the world.
And here's the crucial connection: if God's kingdom is his rule and reign, then to pray for the kingdom means we must submit to his will. You can't have one without the other. To want God's authority over the world means being willing to live under that authority yourself.
Reclaiming What Was Lost
Tim reminded us why Jesus came: to reclaim God's kingship over the world. In Genesis 1, human beings were given the right to rule over creation, crowned with glory and honour (Psalm 8). But through our rebellion, we handed that right over to the devil.
Christ came as the second Adam to undo what we had done. By defeating the devil in the wilderness and ultimately destroying the power of sin on the cross, Christ dethroned the demonic powers (Colossians 2) and reclaimed the right to rule — for himself, and for us in him.
Now, by the power of the Spirit, we are being invited by Christ to take up our right to rule again — not in our own name, but in the name of Jesus, the King of kings. When we live our lives for the glory of his name and the doing of his will, under the authority of his power, we will change the world.
"While God does not technically need us to pray for his kingdom to come or his will to be done, he grants us the dignity in the authority and power of the name of his son to be instrumental through our prayers in the unfolding of history, in the ongoing coming or unveiling of God's kingdom and in the exercise and triumph of the will of God."
This is why our prayers matter. This is why German theologian Karl Barth could write: "To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world."
The Secret of the Mystery
But here's where many of us get stuck. If we must submit to God's will, doesn't that mean a life of drudgery, of endless demands, of crushing obligation?
Tim addressed this head-on. The will of God, he insisted, is not some horrible imposition intended to ruin our joy. Rather, it is the most beautiful and liberating thing in the whole world — but we only discover this as we surrender to it.
And here's the secret: we can't do God's will. That's the whole point. How could we possibly bring in God's kingdom or accomplish his will by our own effort? It's preposterous. The only thing we can do is surrender ourselves to it. And when we surrender, we make space in our lives for God to do in us and through us what only God can do.
As Tim powerfully put it:
"We don't participate in God's will by trying really hard to do it. We participate by surrender. And as we do, we will experience the power of the Spirit to move in us, to will and to act according to God's good pleasure. It is God who works in us. It is God who does this in us, what only God can do."
Hebrews tells us it was for the joy set before him that Jesus submitted to the will of his Father. The same is true for us. What our Father most deeply desires is that we would experience fullness of joy in his presence and in his love. And the only path to that joy is through surrender to his will.
One Way to Live It Out This Week
This week, practice the prayer of surrender. Take five minutes each day to sit quietly before God and simply pray: "Not my will, but yours be done." Don't rush it. Let the words sink in. Notice where you feel resistance — perhaps in a relationship, a decision, a habit, or a hope. Offer that specific thing to God and ask him to give you his peace and his power to walk in his will.
A Short Prayer
Father, we confess that we often want your kingdom without surrendering to your will. We want the blessing without the cost, the authority without the submission. Forgive us. Teach us what it means to pray "Your kingdom come, your will be done" with our whole hearts. Give us courage to surrender. Fill us with your Spirit. Help us to trust that your will is good, and that in your presence is fullness of joy. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Personal Reflection
Where in your life are you currently resisting God's will? What would it look like to surrender that area to him this week?
How does understanding the kingdom of God as his "rule and reign" (rather than just a place or future event) change the way you think about following Jesus today?
Tim said, "The will of God is not some horrible imposition intended to ruin our joy." Do you believe this? What past experiences or current fears make it hard to trust God's will?
Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 6:9-10 together. What stands out to you about the second and third petitions of the Lord's Prayer?
Tim explained that "kingdom" in the Bible means God's authority and rule, not just a territory. How does this definition help you understand Jesus' teaching about the kingdom?
Why do you think Jesus put "Your kingdom come" and "Your will be done" right next to each other? What's the connection between these two requests?
Tim quoted Karl Barth: "To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world." What do you think he meant by that? How can our prayers actually change things?
What's the difference between trying to "do God's will" through our own effort versus surrendering to God's will and letting him work in us?
Where have you seen God's kingdom breaking into the world recently — either in your own life or in the life of someone you know?
What would it look like for you personally to pray "Your will be done" with more sincerity this week? What might need to change?
How can we pray for one another as we learn to surrender more fully to God's will?