"Pray Like This"

Mr. Magorium’s World

One of the struggles in anticipation is that it involves waiting, and waiting can make us impatient. Especially in our spiritual walk, we can be impatient when we aren’t seeing the results in our growth in sanctification that we’d like, or when we are waiting on God to answer a prayer. Corporately, we can struggle to be a holy church that reflects God’s kingdom while awaiting our coming King. But when we wait and anticipate what God is going to do, we don’t need to be impatient. In the movie, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, the characters Molly Mahoney and Mr. Magorium are in a clock store. They have wound all the clocks to strike at the same time and need to wait thirty-seven seconds before the store is filled with the sounds of chiming. Molly says, “Now we wait.” But Mr. Magorium corrects her: “No! We breathe, we pulse, we regenerate. Our hearts beat, our minds create, our souls ingest. Thirty-seven seconds well used is a lifetime” (directed by Zach Helm [Twentieth Century Fox, 2007]).

“Seeking God Corporately”

It’s easy to talk about experiencing God individually, but what about corporately? Experiencing God corporately is very important. We can experience new vision for the church. God can show us how we can bring the kingdom of God to our community. We can be a place that cultivates the fruit of the Spirit, where we don’t just preach about love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness, but where people experience these virtues in real relationships. The church can be a community of people where the kingdom of God is reflected in the world. Just as believers know that they are not saved by doing works on their own, nor sanctified by trying to make themselves holy, they must also realize that bringing God’s kingdom and reflecting their King comes only by the power of God and the transformation of the Holy Spirit. Our prayer is to say, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). This prayer is sandwiched in among the ethical teachings of Jesus. We reflect the kingdom of God through living the teachings of Jesus. We as a church will pray and anticipate God giving us vision and showing us how to be kingdom-bearers in our community.

The Lord’s Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer is included in the teaching of Jesus at the Sermon on the Mount. In this sermon Jesus teaches on forgiveness, money, peacemaking, and how to live as his disciples. According to Craig Keener, the Lord’s Prayer is an adaptation of a synagogue prayer called the Kaddish: “Although Jesus’ ministry sets the elements of the prayer in a new context—the future kingdom is present in a hidden way in the future King, Jesus of Nazareth.” While we might see God’s kingdom expressed only briefly in the prayer, the concept of the kingdom of God and living as a kingdom citizen is found throughout the Sermon on the Mount.

Pray with a present faith combined with hope, knowing God cares for our needs

Keener continues, “The hallowing of God’s name, the consummation of his reign and the doing of his will are all versions of the same end-time promise: everything will be set right someday. No more crime, no more discrimination and hatred, no more sickness or grief. Of course that day will bring an end to those not doing God’s will, so his mercy has delayed it for their sake (2 Pet 3:9, 15). But we who long for God’s will on earth in the future ought to live consistently with our longing in the present, working for God’s righteousness and seeking his will here” (Craig S. Keener, Matthew, IVP New Testament Commentary Series [Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1997], Logos).

Pray that we love one other enough to forgive one another

Pray for God’s protection, knowing that God has all power