Who Is Really God (and Do you Treat Him as Such?)

Who Is Really God (and Do You Treat Him as Such)?
Psalm 29

Without being fully aware of what she was doing, on the eve of her daughter’s wedding my innocent, soon-to-be wife agreed with her prospective son-in-law’s mother (who was the matriarch of a large, Mexican, Roman Catholic family) that the two of them would say a novena for the next generation—for their children and grandchildren. Strictly speaking, a novena is a prayer you say for nine days, but my soon-to-be stepson’s mother maneuvered my fiancée into making this commitment for two years, so when we married I inherited it. However, it has turned out to be a fine discipline. Part of this particular novena involves saying the Lord’s Prayer twice, which has focused my prayer, especially the petition “Your kingdom come; your will be done, on earth as in heaven.” Yet I find this petition puzzling, because both the Old and New Testaments make clear that there are forces in heaven (at least, in the supernatural world) opposing God’s will just as there are on earth. Perhaps the implication is that we need to urge God to implement his will both in heaven and on earth...