The last petition in the Lord’s Prayer is on temptation. This devotional reading looks at what temptation is and isn’t and how God leads us not into it.
Nuggets
- Temptations are a part of life in order for us to grow in faith.
- We can’t resist temptation alone, rather God delivers us.
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“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Mt. 6: 13 NIV)
Lead Us Away from Temptation
“And lead us not into temptation…” (Mt. 6: 13 NIV)
Temptations are a part of life in order for us to grow in faith.
We usually don’t want to experience temptations. Temptation is a suggestion in our mind that would lead us to sin rather than following God’s Will. It is also that period of time between conception and execution of doing what is sinful.
Moore described temptation as a “… moral experiment for good or evil.” He also said it is an invitation to sin. That is an excellent description!
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We could also say it is the foundation for sin. It is the stomping grounds.
That brings up a point that the Biblical Illistrator brought up. The quote says, “Temptation is a necessary element in a life of probation, such as our life on earth is.”
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We are preparing for our life during eternity. We have to be transformed to have God’s character in order to gain entrance to Heaven.
Temptations aid us in the transformation.
What it is is a moral battle. We are trying to determine what is the proper way to act.
It is definitely between good and evil. It is between Satan and God’s ownership of us.
Good, in the biblical sense, is the workings of God within His people through His holy, pure, and righteous behavior.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
Evil is equated with sin because it is that which goes against God and His purposes.
We know these temptation comes from Satan. They don’t come from God because He tests us rather than tempts us.
That may be a hard concept to grasp. Tempting. Testing. We may think it is a rose by any other name is still a rose.
God may let us drive through the neighborhood of temptation, but He doesn’t program our GPS for it.
Blackburn said something interesting. He wrote, “THOSE TEMPTATIONS THAT ARE RELATED TO GOD HIMSELF.”
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Does that sound contradictory? I don’t think so.
The temptations we face relate to God because Satan is trying to get us to do the opposite of what God wants us to do. The world is full of temptations, and Satan works overtime to get them on our radar.
So, when we pray this, we shouldn’t be asking to bypass the temptations. We’d be missing some of our greatest blessings if we did that.
Mangey felt we are asking not to be blindsided with trials or to not forget what we have gone through. Stanford felt it was our petition for help with the upcoming temptation because we know it is going to come. Winslow said we are asking God to weaken the power of the temptation.
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That stresses that we have to be on guard. We have to watch because Satan is going to try to slide something in on us.
We sometimes blame God for our troubles. To punish God, we stop praying to Him.
Withholding our prayers solves nothing. Instead of drawing us to God, it takes us further away from Him.
Temptation itself isn’t sin. Unfortunately, we usually give into that temptation. We commit the sins and fail at the evaluation of our faith.
Winslow made a comment that got the gears turning. He said that the temptations come from within.
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Don’t get me wrong. Winslow said they come from without, too.
But even if the temptation comes from the world, it has to be addressing something we find tempting. That has to come from the inside.
The temptation has to stem from a weakness within our faith. Faith is an inside thing.
We don’t like to think of it that way, do we? We want Satan to be blamed for the temptations – and our giving in to the sin.
We don’t want it to reflect weakness on our part.
But isn’t that the whole purpose of temptations? It shows us where we are weak and need work. It cuts out that associated sin.
We just talked about this. Satan and God aren’t to blame when we sin. We are.
We sin because of our ability to choose – free will. Free will is the ability within us to make decisions, which determine actions that produce character.
Sometimes, we not only choose to commit the sin associated with the temptation, but we also program the GPS ourselves. We go looking for it.
Other times, we don’t have the specific address programmed in. We just have the neighborhood as our destination.
Beecher made a really good observation. We can even be tempted by good things.
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Does that seem nonsensible? A little bit of a good thing is great, be a lot of a good thing should be better. Right?
Not necessarily.
Remember, God calls us to be sober minded. He calls us to be even keeled.
Glossary
We should approach things in moderation. Wanting even more of a good thing doesn’t always mesh with moderation.
Deliverance
“… but deliver us from the evil one” (Mt. 6: 13 NIV)
We can’t resist temptation alone, rather God delivers us.
There is no way we are going to withstand Satan by ourselves. Paul told us why.
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6: 12 ESV).
It would be like taking a butter knife to a gunfight.
We can’t fight Satan on our own strength. We have to rely on God’s strength and power.
Barrow reminded us we need God’s instructions and guidance to withstand the temptations. That is where the growing through the temptations come into play.
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This translation says keep us from Satan. The English Standard Version broadens it to keep us from evil. Period.
I guess — technically — they both are right. All sin comes from Satan. All evil is opposed to God’s good.
Whether we are focusing on the who or the what of sin, it is taking our focus off God.
Manton gave us a list of the consequences of sin.
- We become separated from God.
- We are prevented from experiencing of God’s comfort.
- It reprimands our sin.
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There is hope. Edwards reminds us that evil is something separate from us.
Yes, we have our sinful nature. But that isn’t how mankind was originally made.
We were originally made in the image of God. We didn’t have sin in our lives.
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Glossary
That gives me a lot of peace and comfort. It is easy returning something to its original form than taking something and completely changing its makeup.
But that also signifies how important it is for us to repent of our sins. Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God and expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to change our sinful ways to ways of righteousness through obedience.
- Sin is not believing that Jesus is our Savior to save us from our actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Obedience means submitting ourselves to the will of God as it is presented to us and living our lives accordingly.
Glossary
Barrow gave us a list of that for which we are actually asking when we pray.
- A clear conscious.
- Removal of guilt.
- Removal of our blindness to sin.
- Softening of our hearts.
- Increased reverence to God.
- Love toward others.
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I feel I have to chase a rabbit a second. God is the only One who gets to say what sin is and what it isn’t. We don’t get to choose.
But then that leaves God with the timetable of when we are going to be delivered from the temptations.
It is all up to Him.
God still has us to ask for the deliverance He wants to give. As He can see our hearts and our motivations, He know when the time is right.
We have to learn to see things God’s way.
Making the Connections #1
Let’s tie this back to forgive our debtors as we have been forgiven. One thing that might help us forgive them is when we remember they were tempted, too.
Also, we don’t want to lead others stray by following us when we are tempted.
Making the Connections #2
Vaughan brought up something that we may not be thinking about. He wrote, “Admire the anticipatory character of God’s care for us.”
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God may tell Satan that he can’t tempt us in a certain way or at a certain time. God has control.
Sometimes, God does what we want. He takes away our proclivity to sin. We no longer have the appetite for that temptation.
Maybe it is just me, but I bet God really likes defeating Satan in the battles. We know He is going to win the war, but winning the battles along the way is good.
Making the Connections #3
Have you ever thought about why temptation petition was the last one? I hadn’t until I read Saphir’s sermon.
Saphir said that this was the last petition because it summarized the previous petitions. It is through this petition that, as Blyth said, we can grasp the others.
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Let’s review what the others are.
1. Hallowed be thy name.
2. Thy kingdom come.
3. Thy will done on earth.
4. Our daily bread.
5. Forgive us our debts.
6. And lead us not into temptation.
We focus on these, and we will be delivered from evil. Why? Because we will be communicating with Sovereign God.
When we consistency communicate with God, we gain perseverance.
How Do We Apply This?
- Resist temptation.
- Follow Jesus’ example in resisting temptation.
- Be on guard against the temptations focused on our weak flank.
- Use the temptations to grow our faith.
- Don’t run into temptation because we have a heightened awareness of it through prayer.
- Don’t run into temptation while trying to avoid some other temptation.
- Recognize God’s mercy in allow trials to happen because it grows our humility.
- Don’t expect God to keep delivering us from temptations if we do not try to keep ourselves from them.
- Fortify our energies to resist temptation.
- Don’t hide or ignore our weaknesses.
- Fear temptation.
- Pray to withstand the temptations we face.
- Be on guard.
- Don’t program the GPS for temptation’s neighborhood.
- Be watching for small temptations as well as the big ones.
- Follow the still, soft promptings of the Holy Spirit.
- Recognize temptations change as we change.
- Realize how great our need is to have our sinful nature removed.
- Let God set the timetable for deliverance.
- Recognize that Jesus is the only avenue of deliverance, the promised Deliverer.
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Father God. We know we will be tempted. We may rather we wouldn’t be, but we know this is our opportunity to grow our faith. Help us not be blindsided by temptations. Help us stand firmly in Your Will. Amen.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
What do you think?
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