The Lord's Prayer (8)

Quintus Heine

Matthew 6:13 "And lead us not into temptation."

In this prayer we ask that God will enable us to stand against temptation. This is a prayer for spiritual growth and obedience to God.

Temptations: We are tempted daily to disobey God. We are tempted to enjoy sin and fall into wrong thoughts, desires, poor relationships and infidelity. It is never the Lord leading us into temptation (James 1:13), but nowhere in the Bible does God promise us a life where we won't be fighting temptations. As Christians we must fight daily against the attacks of Satan. This prayer wants us to ask God every day that he will help us not to fall into the traps of Satan and give in!

We cannot do it alone: Paul says in Romans 7:19 "For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing." (see Romans 7:15-19). Our fathers of faith said: "Even our best deeds are defiled with sin." Even though we try our best and work hard on our spiritual life, we will never be able to resist all the temptations of life on our own, so the Lord teaches us to pray this prayer. We cannot resist sin by ourselves, so we need to live every day in dependence on God. The Lord helps us daily to not succumb to temptations. If you try to do it yourself, you will soon realise it's not possible. You should pray to God every morning and ask him to help you to resist the temptations of the coming day. You do not have to give in to them because Christ, who is the conqueror, will help you. (Tomorrow I will talk about the victory of Christ over evil.)

Prayer: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and for ever. Amen.