Your kingdom come
Day 354, Thursday, July 31
Luke 17:20 – 19:27
The topic of the coming kingdom of God continues in the early part of today’s reading, and as usual Jesus insists he cannot say when it will happen. This time, though, he goes even further and suggests that people will not recognize it when it does come because it is something that will be “in your midst” or “within you.”
“The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
People seem to want the coming of the kingdom of God to be something they can observe; that is, they want it to be something that takes place outside of them that they can see happen.
Much in scripture suggests that will happen someday, and interpreters like to eagerly pick over the scraps of clues we have to confidently proclaim it is near in their own day.
What we see with more confidence in scripture, though, is that the kingdom of God comes into the life of each believer, not as something that is observed but as something that is experienced.
At least for now we live in a world where the kingdom of God coexists with the kingdom of the world.
We must never forget, though, that as the kingdom of God is in us, we are also in the kingdom of God.
-Rev. Mark Fleming
Thursday meditation
Job 13:13-28
“Keep silent and let me speak; then let come to me what may. Why do I put myself in jeopardy and take my life in my hands? Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face. Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance, for no godless person would dare come before him! Listen carefully to what I say; let my words ring in your ears. Now that I have prepared my case, I know I will be vindicated. Can anyone bring charges against me? If so, I will be silent and die.
“Only grant me these two things, God, and then I will not hide from you: Withdraw your hand far from me, and stop frightening me with your terrors. Then summon me and I will answer, or let me speak, and you reply to me. How many wrongs and sins have I committed? Show me my offense and my sin. Why do you hide your face and consider me your enemy? Will you torment a windblown leaf? Will you chase after dry chaff? For you write down bitter things against me and make me reap the sins of my youth. You fasten my feet in shackles; you keep close watch on all my paths by putting marks on the soles of my feet.
“So man wastes away like something rotten, like a garment eaten by moths.
Prayer focus
Let your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.