I was struck this morning by the words at the end of the Lord’s prayer, ‘forever and ever Amen’. I guess I’ve always been excited by the previous words, ‘Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory’ – especially when praying into a difficult situation- and I’ve not really dwelt on those last few words, ‘forever and ever Amen’. It’s a phrase that resonates with the words from Revelation 1:18, that Jesus spoke to John on the Isle of Patmos, “I am the living one: I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever”.
During the last year so much that we have taken for granted has been shaken in the world politically and economically. So many people are wondering what the future holds post Brexit and post Covid for their finances, their families and for their health and general well being. Sometimes we can find ourselves wondering ‘where and when will it all end?’ It can feel like everything is changing very fast, and not always for the better, and so many things that we thought that our governments had under control, now seem way beyond them.
Today I believe the Lord would say to those of us who are feeling worried by all the uncertainties, whether for ourselves, our family, our nation or our world, ‘It is time to lift your gaze to heaven, and see who is on the throne.’ The Lamb is on the throne and He will be there forever and ever’. Revelation 5:13.
As an antidote to our fears, we can thank God today that we are part of a Kingdom that will not pass away, and we can thank God that ‘Jesus is the same yesterday today and forever’ Hebrews 13:8, and that ‘He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end’, Revelation 1:8. We have an unchanging God, and we can thank the Lord that He is, and always will be, seated on the throne, forever and ever.
I think of those beautiful words that Trish and Noel Richards wrote in 1987,
‘All heaven declares the glory of the risen Lord who can compare with the beauty of the Lord? Forever He will be, the Lamb upon the throne, I gladly bow the knee and worship Him alone’.
The whole of heaven is echoing that refrain, ‘Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power, be to Him who sits on the throne; and to the Lamb forever and ever’. And we then just have to join the four living creatures, and elders who worship and say ‘Amen’, (I like the way that it’s put in The Message; ‘The four .…fall down and call out ‘Oh Yes!’) Revelation 5:13,14
So now when we think of the Lord’s prayer in the context of our changing world, let us thank Him that when he was on earth he gave us those two phrases with one breath ‘Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory, forever and ever Amen’. They belong together and form the unchanging truth that in changeable times we have an unchanging God ‘forever and ever, Oh yes!’
