“And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one, and His name one.”
– Zechariah 14:9
Yes, this is what Jesus taught us to pray, for the day when the Lord will be king over all the earth. And he and his name will be supreme above all.
Zechariah 14:9 Teaches that God will soon Stablish His Perfect Kingdom
And even as I say that, obviously, obviously, God is king over all the earth right now. He’s ruling and reigning over all the earth and He is supreme. But we live in a fallen world where His supreme rule and reign is still rejected all over the world, in sin that leads to sorrow and suffering and death. And this is why Jesus taught us to pray this way. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, Zechariah 14:9, “On that day, the Lord will be one, his name one.” Hallowed be, cause your name to be known as holy in all the earth, your kingdom come. Zechariah 14:9, “The Lord will be king over all the earth.”
We want the kingdom of God in all of His fullness, His righteousness, His peace, to reign. We want His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. That’s what’s not happening right now. God’s will, instead of being obeyed on earth as it is in heaven, it’s being perfectly obeyed in heaven. And our longing is for God’s will to be perfectly obeyed on earth.
Zechariah 14:9 Reminds Us we should Pray for God’s Kingdom to Come
So we pray for this, in anticipation of this reality to come. And then doesn’t it just make sense then to live for this today, in light of this reality to come. It would make no sense to pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” and then not rise from our knees and obey God’s will, to do God’s word in our lives as it is in heaven and to proclaim His coming kingdom. That’s the kind of life that flows from praying what Jesus taught us to pray. We share the good news of the king who’s coming. And we live to see His name, hallowed, acknowledged, worshiped, feared, honored, glorified, as holy, as supreme. We live for that today.
So let’s put this together in prayer based on Zechariah 14:9, and what Jesus taught us to pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, in all the earth, we pray. Please make your name known as holy in all the earth. Among all the peoples, among all the nations of the earth.
Praying for the Sasak People
We pray for the Sasak people of Indonesia, three and a half million of them, this Muslim people group, where your name is not being hallowed right now. Where your name is being defamed by false religion. God, we pray for the hallowing of your name, our Father, for the hallowing of your name, Jesus the Son, for the hallowing of your name, Holy Spirit, God, three in one, hallowed be your name among the Sasak people of Indonesia, among all the peoples of the earth, all the tribes and tongues call your name, we pray, we ask. We long for your name to be hallowed among all of them.
And for your name to be hallowed in our lives. Cause your name to be made known as holy through us today. Help us to represent your name well. Help us to show people who you are with the way we live today in ways that lead to the hallowing of your name and people around us. Matthew 5, that we would do good deeds and let light shine. People may see us, what we do, and glorify you in heaven. Oh God, your kingdom come. Bring your kingdom and help us today to proclaim the good news of your kingdom, to lead people to bow the knee to you as king.
Praying for the Spirit’s Empowerment
God, we pray that you would empower us by your Holy Spirit, just as you promised to do, to lead people to Jesus as king today. To proclaim, boldly and compassionately, that Jesus is king today. And we long, God, we long, for your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. We long for sin to be no more. Lord, we hate sin. We hate it. God, we hate its effects in our lives. We hate its effects on people around us we love. Lord, we hate its effects in the world. People all over the world, all the ruinous, disastrous, destructive, deadly effects of sin.
God, please bring and end to it all, cause your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. And even as we pray that, we pray, God, help us to run from sin in our lives today. Help us to resist temptation at every turn. Pray that our thoughts and our desires and our word and our actions will be pleasing to you, holy before you. Help us to live today according to your will on earth, in our lives here, as it’s being done in heaven today. Oh, God, we pray all of this directly according to your word in Zechariah 14:9 and Matthew 6. In Jesus name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
