And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Matthew 6:13.
Dear God we are so grateful to be able to call upon You in the hour of temptation with the full assurance that You will both hear our prayer and come to our assisstance. Thank You dear God in the precious name of Jesus the Christ. Amen.
Today we are looking at another petition within the prayer that Jesus gave to His disciples at their request to teach them how to pray. This is a cry that I believe most of us utter several times a day, at least I do. “Lord I do not want to think this way.” “Father please free me from these thoughts!” “Dear God please make me more like You.” On and on throughout the day we send up our S.O.S. seeking to be delivered from the “evil one.”
I find it significant that this plea should follow the request for forgiveness. Could it be a subtle reminder that we all have a common foe; are all in danger of falling into temptation; and therefore we are all in need of divine help? When we are willing to admit that we are more alike than different in our weaknesses, we tend to be more understanding, and less judgmental.
I think of how David pronounced his own punishment, when he fell into sin with Bathsheba, not knowing that “the man” in the prophet Nathan’s parable was himself: “So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity” (2 Samuel 12:5,6).
I want to believe that if he had thought of this “unknown” person as a man with weaknesses like himself, he may have been willing to hear his story and probably would have even sought forgiveness for him. After all, it was not that long ago that he had taken away Uriah’s only little “lamb” and made him carry his own death sentence to the captain of the army in which he was serving! Is it not a sad truth that sin always appears to be more grievous when it is committed by someone else?
On the other hand, how merciful is our God! Always willing to deliver us! And when, in spite of all His efforts to save us from the evil one, we fall, He goes a step further: “He remembers that we are dust . . . . [therefore] He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103: 14b, 10)!
It behooves us to remember that we are all just a step away from being led into one of the traps set by the evil one. May this thought inspire us to take pity on others. The next time we come to this part of the Lord’s prayer, let us praise Him for His willingness to keep us from the hour of temptation, and for His amazing grace that can deliver us from the evil one. Then let us determine that, in His strength, and by His grace, we will do all in our power to help someone else in their hour of temptation.