I recently went to Buffalo Wild Wings with a friend (by the way, Tuesdays are half priced wings day, so if you want to invite your favorite pastor out on a Tuesday . . .). While we were there, in addition to telling us about half priced wings, our server told us about Buffalo Wild Wings’ new “loyalty app” called “Blazing Rewards” (after their ridiculously hot, top end of the Scoville scale wing sauce). 
This was less impressive than the Blazing Challenge that I entered into while I was in St. Louis, which challenged you to eat a number (12?) of Blazing wings and then congratulated your achievement by putting your name on the wall. But it was also less painful. So I downloaded the app, gave them my information, and allowed them to track my loyalty.
I think they’re going to be somewhat disappointed. In fact, according to an article I read recently, they’re disappointed with a lot of us.
This past Sunday we confessed the 2nd petition of the Lord’s Prayer:
What is the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer?
Thy Kingdom come.
What does this mean? (Part 1)
The Kingdom of God certainly comes by itself without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it would come among us also.
Of course, you may have stared blankly at the page this Sunday, questioning yourself internally saying “what does a ‘kingdom coming’ mean?”
I would say that it has something to do with loyalty.
We don’t have a political king, so this is sometimes hard for us to grasp. But if you have a king, you will often pledge loyalty to that king. This means that you promise that you will be loyal to the king. Not only will you be available if the king calls on you, but you will actually conduct your life in such a way as to consider your king. The more people who promise to be loyal to the king, the greater that king’s kingdom becomes. Sure, there are other ways of measuring the greatness of a kingdom, but this is one of the greatest.
You could probably even make a “loyalty quotient” for most kingdoms:
(number of loyal subjects) x (degree of subjects’ loyalty) = loyalty quotient.
That is what the 2nd petition is talking about. We know that God will have a number of loyal subjects. We also know that God will increase the degree of loyalty in each of those subjects. We simply are praying for the ability to be a part of this. We are asking if we can be one of His loyal subjects. We are asking if He will make us loyal.
Will He?
Well, that’s the great thing about the Lord’s Prayer. He has actually COMMANDED us to pray this. So, of course He is going to respond favorably to our request. We don’t have to wonder if we’re praying the wrong thing, because we’ve been commanded to pray it, because it is the right thing, because this is God’s revealed will.
So consider praying the Lord’s Prayer today, and when you get to the second petition, “Thy Kingdom come,” stop yourself before moving on. Clarify your request for yourself. Say “Lord, make me Your loyal subject and increase my loyalty. Let Your kingdom come to me also.”
And He will.