Lead Me, Guide Me
Read Matthew 6:9-13
“This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.”
After unpacking the “Lord’s Prayer” for several weeks, hopefully we’ve realized that Jesus wasn’t giving his disciples another ritual to follow, he was giving them a pattern of prayer to follow. Jesus exhorted his disciples to pray “in this manner” (NKJV) or “like this” (ESV). Jesus never asked his followers to memorize the words or to adopt another ritual to follow. He was showing his believers how to observe and how to pray.
“And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.”
We really should look at verse as one complete thought rather than as two separate statements. Temptation is all around us. We face it daily in every aspect of our lives. Peirasmos (temptation) is a morally neutral word which simply describes putting one to the test. This petition wasn’t asking God to keep us from doing evil. We need to be conscious of temptation and be sincere in our prayers requesting God to give us the ability to recognize and resist it. When we are conscious of temptation, we can then pray to God to deliver us from it.
Jesus did not infer that it is God’s will to tempt us. He doesn’t. He does allow us to be tempted, but I believe a more accurate viewpoint is that we lead ourselves to temptation. How many times do we put ourselves in a situation where we are setup to fail? When we know it’s not a good idea, but we do it anyway. Like the time when we don’t want any dessert and we say, oh just a little bit won’t hurt me. After a gallon of ice cream later, we see the error of our ways. God can save us but he doesn’t tell us to be stupid.
We ask God to help us avoid from making bad decisions. We ask God to remove us from these pivotal situations. We ask God to make His grace abound us and to keep us from falling. We ask God to stop us from being our own counsel.
“but deliver us from evil.”
The word “deliver” in this case, does not mean that we should expect God to literally extract us from evil. We cannot preserve ourselves from evil, we need God’s rescue. We need His guidance to help us resist the evils around us. For the most part, we have exposed ourselves to sin and we need to God set us free.
Jesus was fed up with how the Pharisees and Sadducees were praying for their own glory and treasures. In these verses in Matthew, Jesus is revealing God in his place and us in ours. The Lord’s prayer is not for people without a Christian baseline. It includes God’s perfect goodness, His sovereignty, His perfection, and His will. The Lord’s Prayer is meant for the obedient disciple who knows God as he is.
Instead of reciting the prayer in a mindless ritual, we need to pray it thoughtfully and reflectively. We need to open our hearts and allow it guide our prayers. May God, lead us in places where He is, and where we can be free.
“Lead me, guide me along the way,
For if you lead me I cannot stray.
Lord let me walk each day with Thee.
Lead me, oh Lord lead me.
I am lost if you take your hand from me,
I am blind without Thy light to see.
Lord just always to me thy servant be,
Lead me, oh Lord lead me.”
Highlights:
- How do you do with temptation? Are you good at resisting it? Do you frequently place yourself in a position to fail?
- Do you view temptation as doing evil or just self-sabotage?
- When you’re in a bad, harmful, or otherwise negative situation, do you have the ability to withdraw?
Key Applications:
- To avoid temptation (and sin), we must be conscious of our surroundings. We must know our limits. We must pray.
- We should pray, as Jesus taught us to pray. Jesus, not us, should be the center of our prayers. In prayer, we need to humble ourselves that we’re not in control.
- If we sincerely want to avoid being tested and to be delivered from evil, we remember these simple truths:
- Never boast in our own strengths
- Never desire our own fame
- Never look for temptation
- Never lead others into temptation
Where else in your life can you live out the teachings of Christ? Look for next week’s Devotion.