RELIGION: 'For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever'

Weekly Devotion

"For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen." Matthew 6:13b

The Lord Jesus teaches us to pray to the Father and say, "Your kingdom come." Indeed, the kingdom belongs to the LORD God, our heavenly Father; for He not only created all things, but He is also building and establishing His kingdom of grace and mercy in Jesus Christ. Though all other kingdoms of this world will pass away, His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom that will never end (cf. Dan. 2:44; Rev. 7:9-17; 19:16; 21:1ff.).

God the Father established this kingdom by sending His only begotten Son to suffer and to die for the sins of the world and rise again. And, by the gracious working of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Word, He calls His elect children to faith in Christ Jesus and gives them life in Jesus' name, thus rescuing them from the kingdom of darkness and bringing them into the kingdom of His own dear Son, in whom there is forgiveness of sins through His shed blood.

It is as the Bible says, "He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins" (Col. 1:13-14).

Thus, we pray to God the Father and trust that He can and will hear and answer our prayers because His is the kingdom and His is the power.

In His grace and mercy, God the Father has brought us to repent of our sinful ways and trust in His Son, and so He has brought us into His kingdom. By His gracious power and working, He has called us from spiritual darkness and death to life through faith in Christ Jesus. And, of course, He continually rules over all and works for the good of His children. He can and will provide us with our daily bread. He can and does lead us safely through this life, and He will deliver us from every temptation and attack of the devil, the world and our own sinful flesh upon us and bring us safely into His eternal and heavenly kingdom of glory.

And, His is the glory. He has done it all. He created us by His almighty Word. He redeemed us by the innocent sufferings and death of the Son, Jesus Christ. As He raised up Christ from the dead, so He, by the gracious working of the Holy Spirit through His Word, called us from death to life through faith in Christ Jesus. He, through the ministry of Word and Sacrament, preserves His children in the faith and keeps them in His kingdom, and He shall bring them to glory. All the glory is His!

The Bible tells us, "By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). Our salvation is entirely "to the praise of His glory" (Eph. 1:14).

With the Apostle Paul and the Prophet Jeremiah, we can say, "He who glories, let him glory in the Lord" (1 Cor. 1:31; cf. Jer. 9:23-24).

Dear Father in heaven, we laud and praise Your holy name for creating us, redeeming us and making us Your own dear children through faith in Your Son Jesus Christ. We thank You for hearing and answering our prayers. "Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen."

[Devotion by Randy Moll. Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]