Your Kingdom Come
When our family received a call from God to plant a church in Latvia, one of the Baltic countries, we decided to immerse ourselves in that culture. One way to go through an adaptation is to memorize something in a foreign language that you already know by heart in your mother tongue.
Therefore, we started to recite the Lord’s Prayer in Latvian. This became our new spiritual exercise, which made us think of our mission on a deeper level. The new language refreshed our understanding of this familiar prayer and clarified a vision for our ministry.
“Your Kingdom come…” As members of this Kingdom, which was announced by Jesus, we are called to share God’s values with people around us. This is not a list of dos and don’ts. The values of His Kingdom are based on love and compassion. In this sense, all of us are missionaries of the Kingdom. Often when we experience injustice or see suffering and pain, we may feel as though we are foreigners in this world.
This is true: as Christians, we do not belong to this “earthly” culture.
However, the opposite perspective is true as well. People around us who do not know God are foreigners in His Kingdom. We have a responsibility to introduce them to this new reality. As children of the heavenly Father, we have “the keys of the Kingdom,” and we must invite others to their real home and make them feel welcome.
“Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” Jesus radically invites us to love our enemies and to welcome foreigners. This love is not just a sentimental feeling. This attitude of love toward all people not only requires us to preach spiritual holiness but also to live it out in the world around us. While working, shopping, or talking to our neighbors, we are called to mediate God’s presence through acts of compassion and healing in our society.
As representatives of the Kingdom, we are expected to practice the values of our true home country—on earth as it is in heaven. This is not about gaining a reputation for piety but about living a meaningful and godly life, which brings glory to God and points others to His Kingdom. I believe that the love of God should flow out and fill people’s lives through our words and actions, transforming the world and helping our neighbors to acknowledge God as their Lord.
Prayer for the week:
Lord Jesus, thank you for loving us as Your children. Thank you for making us aware of Your goal for our lives. Help us to become the mediators of Your love and compassion in the world around us. Fill us with Your Spirit and give us wisdom to bring others into Your Kingdom. Amen.
Olga Druzhinina is a lecturer in theology for European Nazarene College and M-Power volunteer in Riga, Latvia.
Written for devotions with Holiness Today.
Please note: All facts, figures, and titles were accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of original publication but may have since changed.
