The doxology that ends the Lord’s Prayer does not occur in the oldest manuscripts we have of the Gospel of Matthew. Yet from an early time Christians added this to the text of the Lord’s Prayer. As we look at this fact, we will also look at the first part of this doxology, that the Kingdom belongs to God alone.

The pursuit of “Power” is a continuous human endeavor. Many people allow their lives to be consumed with the pursuit of power, in one form or another. But God here frees us from our idolatrous pursuit of power with the declaration that it belongs to him.

We live in a world where many people, nations, institutions, etc., cry out for and celebrate their own glory. But what does it means when we say that the glory belongs to God alone? What sort of claim does that make over us?