Deliver us From Evil

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

DELIVER US FROM EVIL

Matt 6:9-13

9 "This, then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'

NIV

One thing we know for sure, and that is God does not tempt any man. James it clear on that when he says that when we are tempted, that we should not day that God is tempting us for God cannot be tempted by evil nor does he tempt anyone, but that we are draw away by our own evil desires, in fact James says we are dragged away and enticed. Why would Jesus teach us to pray to God that He would not lead us into temptation when we know that he would not do that. Perhaps the translation of this Greek word gives us a misconception of asking God not to lead is to temptation. It is possible this word could be seen as trial, or proving, as the most direct, or wooden translation is experiment. So then how do we make sense of this? Maybe it would be better asking God not to allow us to be tested. A teacher administers a test to either see how much we know, or for the purpose of passing us, but never to make us fail. No teacher wants their students to fail. God does not want us to fail. It is better to see this as asking Him not to allow us to suffer the temptations either from the evil one, or as James says, from our own desires. The Spirit within us certainly has something to say when we are faced with our own evil desires. However, we do need to first, hear his voice, and second, pay attention to His voice and repent or change the way we think. Instead of considering the evil in our heart, consider God and pay that He will not lead, or allow us to follow this temptation. Then, of course, there is the evil one, which is generally thought to be Satan of the devil. Again, we know that Satan is not omni-present and therefore he is not able to attack all of us all the time. However, that are demons, one third of all the angels that were cast to earth alone with Lucifer. Still, we do not know how many of them they are, and as our population continues to expand, it would seem that just is not enough demons to go around, to always being tempting all men at the same time. But we also know that Satan is a lair and nothing he says or promotes is true. This would also make sense of the evil that it within us. It is a not true, it deceives us. God is the only one who is true, and therefore we need Him to lead us in paths of righteousness, thus delivering us from the evil one, who could be Satan, or it could be ourselves. God will only lead us to the truth, to himself, but He will deliver us from all form of evil. Just as the children of Israel were in bondage in Egypt, and God delivered them, we are in bondage to the evil that is within us, and God can and will deliver us from evil.