Lead Us Not Into Temptation

"Lord, lead me not into temptation. I can find it on my own."  All joking aside I have always been more inclined to blame myself for feeling tempted and for succumbing to said temptation than to believe God had any part of it. After all I've always heard that God doesn't tempt us, and wouldn't leading someone into temptation be the same as tempting them. It seems like entrapment to me, and I just don't like to have the image of God as a dirty cop in my mind. But in all my musings and whining on the subject of temptation, I have never truly looked at it as a subject to study spiritually. I realize as I write this that the avoidance is probably a result of cowardice.

This morning I woke up, prayed with Leah before she left for work, got the all important kiss from her that I need to tide me over until she returns for lunch, poured myself a cup of coffee and returned to the bedroom to begin my morning prayers and meditation. I spent some extra time in prayer before picking up my spiritual and recovery readings for the day because I am still struggling with the fear issue from time to time as I wade through the mire of finding a doctor that I can dream of affording to do my biopsy. As I finished my reading I also finished my first cup of caffeine. I went to the kitchen and discovered the coffee pot missing. I looked around and didn't see it anywhere. Finally, I looked in the cupboard. There it was. I evidently got my coffee cup this morning, filled it, and then replaced it in the cupboard with the coffee pot instead of putting the pot back on the burner. I don't think I've ever done anything like this sober.

I felt embarrassed. And then the thought came to me, "I'm tempted to just go back to bed." Thinking that word, "temptation," reminded me of where I was on my study of The Sermon On The Mount. So, after my long and boring intro I invite you, dear reader, to join me as I delve into what has always been a little confusing and quite a bit scary..the subject of temptation and the prayer that God lead me not into it.

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the Evil One" Matthew 6:13. As I did some looking into what others say about this verse, Suggestions that I read about how to apply the text were mainly along the lines of advice about avoiding various temptations, such as installing internet software to block and thereby avoid internet pornography. But I don't think such suggestions fit the subject or are very helpful considering that the text in question is found in a prayer and not an ethical exhortation. It's about asking God not to lead me into temptation, not about how to avoid temptation myself. There are other passages of scripture about fleeing temptation where such suggestions would fit better when looking at how to apply the scripture. Also, I realized that to me many of the "bad things for me" that I do not see these temptations that are often removed simply by staying in conscious contact with God as issue enough to explain why "lead us not into temptation" is the only negative request in the Lord's Prayer.

After doing some research and study, I came to realize that this prayer is not asking God not to tempt me with a drink or drug or someone I find attractive or anything else. By surrendering God's will and guidance I am lead safely through dangerous times and situations, not to something that would bring spiritual death. As I am seeing in my separate study of the book of Acts, we may be lead to places that do not look like the best for us through they eyes of human nature, but the reality is that when God is in control there is something good for us, best for us and good for others in every place and situation God brings us to.

Failure to fulfill God's will, reverting to our old nature, sin, comes from consenting to temptation.  In this prayer I ask God  not to lead me into temptation, meaning "do not allow me to enter" or "do not let me yield to" temptation. God can't be tempted, and He tempts no one. This prayer asks Him to block our way into temptation and to give us the Spirit of discernment.

The Spirit helps us to know the difference between trials or tests, which are needed for spiritual growth, and temptations, which lead to spiritual death. With the help of the Spirit we can see the difference between being tempted, which is not wrong or a result of us being outside of God's will, and consenting to temptation. We realize that some things seem desirable or appear to be the solution to how we are feeling but the result, their fruit, is death. There can be a usefulness to temptation, because the ways we are tempted helped reveal our character defects, the nature of who we are without relationship with God.

"Lead us not into temptation" demands a decision of the heart. "No one can serve two masters" Matthew 6:24. "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit" Galations 5:25 Whenever we are tempted, God will "provide the way of escape, so you may be able to endure it" I Corinthians 10:13. When  we are led by God, completely surrendered to His will for us, we will still face temptation, but instead of being slaves and puppets to our instincts and impulses we find God able to speak to us, to guide us to a way of escape. We can recognize that we are being tempted. We find the grace to pause and wait for guidance. God effectively helps us not to slip, not to enter into whatever temptation we are facing. And when I successfully listen to that still small voice of the Spirit I not only find the escape and freedom from the snare, I grow spiritually.

Jesus overcame His temptations by a prayer, and our victory is also won by prayer. In this petition, Christ unites us to His victory, urges us to listen to the guidance of the Spirit. Jesus prayed to the Father, "Keep them in Your name" in John 17:11. This prayer asks for endurance, for final perseverance that leads to complete victory and the protection of God's presence.

"But deliver us from the Evil One." This last part of the petition is also included in Jesus' priestly prayer found in John 17, where He asked the Father to protect His followers from the Evil One. This evil we pray to be delivered from is not abstract but personal. It refers to Satan, the fallen angel who opposes God. The devil is a liar and father of all lies and is the deceiver of the whole world according to John 8:44 and Revelation 12:9. Through him, sin and death entered the world. By his definitive defeat all creation will be freed from the corruption of sin and death. But through relationship with the Father and the grace provided by the sacrifice of Jesus we can experience this freedom now.

At His death, Jesus won the victory over the "prince of this world," over the Evil One. So we claim our rights as co-heirs with Christ and pray for victory over and deliverance from he who desires to see us fail and to see us separated from conscious contact with our Creator.

In this prayer we ask to be delivered, to be freed, from all evils, past, present and future, caused by the enemy of God. Here we bring all our fear and distress before our Heavenly Father and ask for freedom and endurance in establishing lasting and full relationship with Him. We can be free from the chains of our natural man, of our character defects, and protected from anxiety and worry. When we trust God and live by the principles of this part of the Lord's prayer, where we are led by the Spirit and abiding in the shelter of His wings, we find ourselves protected on all sides from every possibility. We are safe from the attacks and manipulation of the enemy of God as well as safe from our own instincts and impulses gone awry or even the human tendency to see in the world around us a solution outside of God or a substitute for relationship with Him. We are provided deliverance from one through our shared victory with Christ and protection and escape from the other through the blocking guidance of the Spirit.

This part of the Lord's prayer is not suggesting that if we don't ask Him not to God will set up an entrapment sting to see if we're as spiritual as we like to think we are. It is about understanding that in relationship with our Father, who art in heaven, is the key to freedom and escape from anything and everything that would interfere with that relationship, both without and within.