INVITATION TO INVASION

I believe that one of the most powerful, transformative prayers that can be prayed in any circumstance, is the heart of the Model Prayer: ” Your Kingdom Come, Your will be done.”  As I was praying this one day over a particular situation, I sensed from The Lord that this was an invitation for an invasion. An invasion of the Kingdom of God into the kingdom of my own little world.

We all have a strong tendency to serve as rulers over our own kingdoms. We make our own rules and set up our own boundaries. Of course, our little kingdoms are a wreck. The problem is bad leadership…and yes…we are each the incompetent leaders of our individual kingdoms. Sometimes the best thing that can happen is a benevolent invasion.

Years ago I was visiting in the totalitarian nation of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. In a fascinating conversation with a Burmese taxi driver, he said he wished that the United States would invade his country.  He said they would be much better off under our leadership.  Quite apart from the morality or rightness of such an invasion, it was a very revealing statement. This taxi driver saw the suffering of his people under bad rulers, and wished for a beneficent invasion.

Perhaps we need the clarity of that Burmese driver regarding our own personal kingdoms. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told us we are blessed when we recognize that we are spiritually poor.  With the humble awareness that we are miserable rulers of our own kingdoms, perhaps we will begin to pray for a new ruler of a new kingdom. We will offer an invitation to an invasion as we pray in each and every situation of life, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done.”