Heidelbergian Children's Catechism (age 8- 10 years)
Lord's Day 48
Do you study geography in school? Then you will be able to find all kinds of countries in an atlas or on a globe. Some of these nations are kingdoms: the Kingdom of England, the Kingdom of The Netherlands, the Kingdom of Spain, and many more. What about the Kingdom of God? Can you find that somewhere in your atlas? No. You may check all the maps, but none of the nations is called “the Kingdom of God:’ What can we say about the Kingdom of God? We know that it is stretched out all over the world. God the Lord governs the whole world. However, the Lord can only use those people in his Kingdom who are happy that He is King, who want to listen to Him, and who follow his commands. Thankfully, there are many people on earth who are children of God. But many, many others go on Iistening to Satan. They listen to God’s enemy. These people are much more interested in the riches of money than in the riches of the Bible. When we pray to God “Your Kingdom come,’ then we ask first of all that we ourselves may be more and more obedient to the Lord. We also ask the Lord to continue to protect t the church and that more and more people will join the church. We especially pray that Satan will be defeated, so that he will not draw the people away from the Lord. The Lord listens when we pray for these things. He will make sure that one day a great nation will arise.lt will be an innumerable nation. It will be the people Christ has bought with his blood, but Satan and his followers do not belong to it. When it is time the Lord Jesus will return on the clouds. Then this world will become brand new.AII people who live on the new earth will be glad that God is King and everything will be good. We look forward to that kingdom of heaven. The Lord Himself is looking forward to it. Therefore we pray respectfully, “Your Kingdom come.”