8.15.23 | And Lead Us Not Into Temptation

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PRAYER ROOMS

Tuesdays (online only today)

PRAYER GUIDE

“And lead us not into temptation.”

Matthew 6:13

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” This version of the quote comes from the 1995 movie The Usual Suspects, but other versions have been circulating through the centuries. The French writer Charles Boudelaire said something similar in a Paris newspaper article in 1864. At times, when thinking about organized crime or the liberation of concentration camps, it is painfully obvious that organized and intelligent evil is at work in the world. But often, we go about our days thinking we inhabit a spiritual vacuum, a spiritually and morally inert world. We are often unaware that a battle is playing out all around us between good and evil.

But when we look at the cosmology of the Bible, it is obvious that from the first pages of Genesis, to the last pages of Revelation, a war is being waged between good and evil, between God and Satan. And that somehow humans are in the middle of this war. Will the humans side with God and his purposes, or will they be tempted and lured astray by Satan, as Adam and Eve were in the garden? 

We like to think it is only Adam and Eve who faced temptation, but this would be naive. Every human being faces temptation every day. The same choice faced at the first tree in the garden, humans face constantly. Will we define good and evil for ourselves? Will we seek wisdom and knowledge and power apart from God? Will we seek to run our own lives? Or will we trust and submit to God? 

This is why, to redeem humanity, Jesus had to recapitulate in his own life the entire human saga. His first act of ministry, after being baptized, was to go into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. He had to, fully emptied of food and possibly water, reject the temptations to use his power selfishly, to be famous, to shortcut the cross on his way to his Kingdom. Jesus faced the temptations we all face…and succeeded in facing them in a concentrated form during that fast and for the next three years of ministry. He faced them again in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross. 

Jesus recognized that he and all human beings will be tempted. Tempted by Satan, by the world, by our flesh. We will be tempted to sin, just as he was. And he recognized that we would often be unaware that we are being tempted. And he knew that the stakes were high. When we give in to temptation, it gives Satan a foothold in our lives, and it also limits what God can do in and through us. It is Satan’s way of taking us out of the battle, of disqualifying us and disabling us from running and finishing our leg of the race. Satan’s primary tool to disrupt the Kingdom of God is temptation. He tempts us, by lying to us, just as he did with Jesus and just as he did with Adam and Eve. 

So Jesus teaches us to pray, “lead us not into temptation,” in part to remind us that we are not living in a spiritual vacuum. We are at war with a cruel enemy who is constantly seeking to trick and deceive us. We are asking God to lead us through the minefield to safety. In part, by helping us to become aware of the temptations. As GI Joe always said, “knowing is half the battle.” So let’s pray this prayer and ask God to lead us not into temptation today, by making us aware of the battle raging around us and the specific ways the enemy would lead us astray today. James says, “resist the devil and he will flee from you.” This is what happened with Jesus in the wilderness and because it happened with him, it can happen with us as well. 

For Reflection/Prayer:

  • Ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten your understanding to see and discern the places of temptation in your life.
  • Bring these areas to God.
  • Ask God for strength to be aware of temptation and to resist the devil so that he will flee from us. 
  • Are there scriptures you need to lay hold off and use to wage war against the devil and his schemes in your life and the lives of those you love? Do it!
  • Ask God for wisdom to see where those in our community or the church at large is being tempted or led astray – and to help us to pray against these temptations.