When Jesus taught His disciples the LORD’s prayer, He told them to pray “Your Kingdom Come.” That has a two-fold meaning. First that His Kingdom takes up residence within us through our relationship with Him in the power of the Holy Spirit. Second, that every day we look to the Second Coming of Christ, when the King of Kings and Lord of Lords will set up His Everlasting Kingdom, all evil banished forever. In the meantime, Jesus added, we should pray to our Father, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
God’s will is done in heaven, without any discord, disagreement or dissension. Not so on earth.
The greatest curse of our generation is an attitude of entitlement. We expect, and sometimes demand that our wants be satisfied by others. One definition I read says: An entitlement mentality is a state of mind in which an individual comes to believe that privileges are instead rights, and that they are to be expected as a matter of course.
Unfortunately, that entitlement mentality has invaded the church as well. We seek out a church body not because of what we can offer (or because God has chosen this place for us), but because of what they can provide for us. As dangerous as that is, it is even more so when we apply that mentality to our relationship with God.
We have no right to demand anything of God—not wealth, health, anointing, success, financial security, or anything else. Good Friday should have taught us that. If Jesus prayed in the garden to His father, “Not my will but Yours Father,” who are we to demand “not Your will Father, but mine.”
God has brought us by the blood of Christ Jesus into the marvelous privilege of relationship with Him. He has promised to never leave us, nor forsake us, and to take us through storms, floods, and fire. Beyond that, anything we receive is a gracious blessing of His love and mercy.
