Meditation on "Thy Kingdom Come"

SpareOom (New Messages)
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This is a translation from “Day by Day”, the Russian book of scriptural meditations:

Scripture: “Thy Kingdom come” (Luke: 11,12)

Meditation: The Lord teaches us first of all to pray not for ourselves, but for the whole world. This prayer is not simply an expression of complete submission, but also an expression of our sincere, ardent desire for the good of all mankind. We must put aside all our personal aspirations and be filled completely with our Lord’s intentions and the deep meaning of His will and His Kingdom.

In response to the prayers of God’s saints the Kingdom of God can be resurrected in this world which lies in sin. We pray that “Thy Kingdom come” on earth, but first of all we must pray that it come within ourselves and that the Lord Jesus Christ, and He alone, reign within us.

In promising complete obedience to Him we bring to his feet our life, our service and our affections. If we have not given Him our entire being, have not submitted completely and unswervingly, then undoubtedly we cannot pray “Thy Kingdom come”. We must show complete integrity. We cannot serve both God and mammon. The Lord will not hear a prayer, and will not accept a heart, given to Him only in part.

This is what Lewis describes his “festoon” on that verse of the “Our Father”, in Letter V of “Letters to Malcolm”:

" ‘Thy kIngdom come’. That is, may your reign be realized here, as it is there. But I tend to take ‘there’ on three levels. First, as in the sinless world beyond the horrors of animal and human life; in the behaviour of stars and trees and water, in sunrise and wind. May there be “here” (in my heart) the beginning of a like beauty. Secondly, as in the best human lives I have known: in all the people who really bear the burdens and ring true, and in the quiet, busy, ordered life of really good families and really good religious houses. May that too be ‘here’. Finally, of course, in the usual sense: as in Heaven, as among the blessed dead.

“And ‘here’ can of course be taken not only as ‘in my heart’, but as ‘in this college’ – in England – in the world in general.”

As I wrote this, I had the feeling that I had quoted this passage from Lewis before. And, sure enough, a “box” came up to the right with the words “Your topic is similar to…”, citing two of my own previous posts about this very verse, from 2012 and 2017.

Speaking of which, first of all, I want to thank you, Dan, for all the great work you have done and continue to do in preserving and continuing SpareOom. And secondly, is there a way to search the archives for posts by my favorite SpareOomers (of whom there are many)?

Dimitry

“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Love will last forever.” (1 Corinthians 13: 4-8)

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There is, but AFAIK only by username. Click the magnifying glass in the upper-right:
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In the search window that pops up, click “options” in the lower-right:
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That takes you to the “Advanced search” page, where you can search by a number of criteria, including by who posted:
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Now, as to the subject of your post, I’ll have to give it some thought. More to (possibly) follow on that.

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The Westminster Larger Catechism seems to view it rather differently than what you cite of Lewis, though I think it’s more in accord with the meditation you’ve translated for us. Here’s what it has to say:

Q. 191. What do we pray for in the second petition?
A. In the second petition (which is, Thy kingdom come ), acknowledging ourselves and all mankind to be by nature under the dominion of sin and Satan, we pray, that the kingdom of sin and Satan may be destroyed, the gospel propagated throughout the world, the Jews called, the fullness of the Gentiles brought in; the church furnished with all gospel officers and ordinances, purged from corruption, countenanced and maintained by the civil magistrate; that the ordinances of Christ may be purely dispensed, and made effectual to the converting of those that are yet in their sins, and the confirming, comforting, and building up of those that are already converted: that Christ would rule in our hearts here, and hasten the time of his second coming, and our reigning with him forever: and that he would be pleased so to exercise the kingdom of his power in all the world, as may best conduce to these ends.

I say this is in “accord with” the meditation, though there’s a distinct difference even there–the emphasis in the meditation is on “the good of all mankind”, while the LC emphasizes God’s increasingly-visible rule on earth, culminating in Christ’s second coming. This surely would not have been what the hearers at the time would have understood (Christ hadn’t yet left them; they wouldn’t be contemplating his return), but almost certainly would have been in view by the time Luke was writing.

I think I’ll need to review Letters to Malcolm, but there are a lot of books on my list at the moment.