Kingdom prayer is prayer surrendered to God’s will and His purposes. It is a joining Him in what He is going to do and submitting to His plans no matter what they are. It starts by acknowledging that God is in control and not us. You can’t really pray to God without that posture. If you view God as your butler, or your genie, or some cosmic vending machine you can control to give you what you want, then you aren’t praying to the God of the Bible but a god of your own creation, an idol that is lifeless and can’t respond. But if you truly view God as your Father and King, as Jesus taught us and showed us, you can go to Him in complete humility and dependence yet filled with confidence at the same time. Here is why.

In this broken and lacking world there are a lot of things to feel anxious about. Anxiety is the opposite of peace, and rips into anything good, beautiful or true that God wants to manifest in our lives. The debilitating worries of life easily consume our hearts and minds and we feel afraid and can’t stop thinking the worst about what could happen in our day-to-day challenges. It’s hard to sleep or rest or even smile. Our anxiety tears us apart, so much so that we desperately try to find peace and escape anxiety through our numbing addictions and by trying to change our hard circumstances with the world’s resources or ideas. But the peace the world gives us is temporary and fake, and in the end leaves us more anxious and disappointed.

It is comforting and assuring to know that God is greater than the floods that have the potential to drown us. He is bigger than the biggest problems we face personally or corporately, and His sovereign command over all things is ultimately aimed at blessing us, even in the flood moments when it feels like we are going to drown. Do we really believe that? Do we really believe that even the floods He allows to figuratively “cover our world” might actually be there to cleanse, purify and nurture new growth for the sake of our ultimate holistic flourishing?

Because of Jesus, and what He has done to bring us into God’s forever family, we can confidently seek our heavenly Father’s face and see delight and grace instead of anger and disappointment. For the believer in the gospel of grace, repentance isn’t shameful, but rather joyful. How is that possible? How can humility be a joyful thing for us?

God calls us as His people to seek out Shalom for the sake of our city as well as our own personal flourishing. He commands us to discover and display the nothing-broken-nothing-missing peace of His kingdom in every part of our day-to-day lives here in “exile” on this fallen planet filled with so many hurting and hopeless people. What does that even look like?

Dear friend,
Over the last 5 years, my wife Kimberly and I have been developing this material I will be posting the next 21 days. Below is the intro to the Pray Shalom 21-day journey.

We have put our heart into this and are hoping to publish it in book form this summer to release to the world… so as you interact with the content we would love your honest feedback. Our desire is to provide those seeking the Kingdom of God a resource to strengthen our thinking, quicken our hearts and equip us to be faithful previews through our lives of the City of Peace to come. 

Philippians 3:17–4:1 Talks about the “enemies of the cross” and what drives them… Yes, if you are a true follower of Jesus you will inevitably have enemies. But what does it look like to love those who scripture portrays as enemies of the cross of Christ and the flourishing eternal life God has destined for […]