Extraordinary Request

When you think of great prayer requests in Scripture, what comes to mind? Joshua’s request to God for the sun to stand still at Gibeon so Israel could rout their enemies? Jabez’s prayer for God to bless him and increase his borders? Hezekiah’s prayer for deliverance in the face of the Assyrians? The options are endless. And at least a couple of these have been coopted as formulaic means for unlocking blessing in your life, which is probably not the wisest approach to them. But what other great requests? What about this request in Matthew 6:9–10:

“Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Is this not the most earth-shaking request that could possibly be made?! Father, may your name be made holy in all the earth, and may your kingdom come, and your will be done on earth just as it is in heaven. What an colossal request—that all the earth would recognize the holiness of God and that God’s kingdom would break out from eternity and break into creation, invading all of earth with God’s will!? This must be the greatest request in all of Scripture. Could this possibly happen? Will this actually happen? (Spoiler Alert) Yes. If you skip ahead to the end of your Bible, you will find this in Revelation 21:1–4:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Simply stunning. What, then, are we to do in the meantime? What do we do in anticipation of such an earth-shaking request? How do we participate in this coming reality now? What do we do? We do ordinary things in ordinary ways.

Ordinary Things in Ordinary Ways

Given this awesome reality, given that we sit on this freight train called creation and time that is charging toward this extraordinary end, does it surprise you that I say we should busy ourselves with doing some very ordinary things? Well, just consider what follows this extraordinary prayer request in Matthew 6:11–13.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

This prayer, then, could sound something like this.

“Father, in light of this extraordinary, amazing request that your name will be hallowed in all the earth, that your kingdom and your will would come crashing into and cover the earth just like in heaven, will you

• Provide my food for me today on my lunch break, and please give me something to eat for dinner too.
• Also, help me to see, believe in, and depend on the life you offer in Jesus, the bread of life, when I go to the Word today.
• And please forgive my sins. Especially for lashing out in anger earlier, and for caring too much about money, and for my self-absorption and pride that causes me to criticize and manipulate my wife (or husband), children, that guy I work with, and for my laziness, and for my obsession with everything but you.
• Also, help me to forgive my wife (or husband), my coworker, my friend, that one guy who doesn’t like me very much, when they wrong me, and help me not hold a grudge like I am prone to do.
• Also, God, please keep me from those things that tempt me so much—anger, lust, pride, coveting, spending too much time on social media. These things end up turning my heart toward evil.
• So please, I’m asking that you would keep me from evil and the evil one who prowls around seeking to destroy me.”

What do we do in the midst of these extraordinary realities of the inevitable kingdom of God? (1) Depend on God for our ordinary, everyday physical and spiritual provisions, (2) confess and repent of sin, (3) forgive others’ sin, and (4) turn away from sin and evil in dependance on God. You could categorize these broadly as (1) depending on God to provide and (2) fighting sin.

These are some of the most basic, ordinary things we are called to do as Christians. Yet, this is God’s will in the midst of his coming kingdom.

God’s Will

(1) Depending on God to Provide

Depending on God for our daily physical and spiritual provisions is his will, because it indicates our belief and trust in his sovereignty, care, and sureness of his coming kingdom. Perhaps that’s why only a few verses later we read this in Matthew 6:31–33:

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

This is normal, ordinary dependence on God for daily physical food. But this is also, normal, ordinary dependence on God for spiritual food. John 6:29, 35:

Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent… Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

We depend on God to provide our physical and spiritual needs. And then we actively go to the pantry and grab some cereal, and we actively come to Jesus in the Word and prayer in dependence that he will give us grace and mercy to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

(2) Fighting Sin

Depending on God in this way leads to God’s name being made holy in all the earth because his name is made holy in individual lives—your life. Depending on God in this way leads to his will being done on earth just as it is in heaven. And this dependence on God characterizes our fight against sin. First Thessalonians 4:3 begins this way:

For this is the will of God, your sanctification:

God’s will for your life is your sanctification. Now in this context, the specific sin in view is sexual sin, but this is a concept that applies to all sins. We depend on God’s grace and mercy for when we do sin. And so we actively confess and repent. And we depend on God to keep us from being tempted beyond our ability and to always provide of escape (1 Corinthians 10:13). And so we use wisdom and actively seek to avoid and put up safeguards against the things that might tempt us. And we depend on God to keep us from evil and our adversary, the devil. So we actively renounce his ways and pray for God’s authority over him to come to bear on our lives. This is seemingly basic, ordinary Christianity. We depend on God and so we actively fight sin.

Conclusion

As Christians, we are aware of and participate in the most extraordinary realities. God’s eternal name, his kingdom, and his will shall all come to bear on this earth. Heaven will flood the earth, and God will dwell with us. And, God wills ordinary rhythmic disciplines of grace—active dependence on God for physical and spiritual provision, confessing of and repenting of sin, forgiving others’ sins, and turning away from evil—as one of the primary means to bring this about. I confess I was partly inspired to write this specific post because I have recently been listening to a new album called Ordinary Ways by John Guerra. In that album, Guerra hits on this very reality. One lyric in his song titled, “Thank You, Lord” is especially fitting:

Daily bread

Daily breath

Ordinary

Faithfulness

Christ in me

More and more

Let it be

Thank You, Lord

Through seemingly ordinary things in seemingly ordinary ways, God makes us look more and more like his Son, Jesus. In doing so, God grants this extraordinary request that his name would be hallowed, that his kingdom would come, and that his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. And, what we’ll discover in the end, is that none of this is very ordinary at all.