"Lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil [or the evil one]"-Luke 11:4
What we are taught to seek or shun in prayer, we should equally pursue or avoid in action. Therefore, we should very earnestly avoid temptation, seeking to walk so guardedly in the path of obedience that we may never tempt the devil to tempt us. We are not to enter the thicket in search of the lion. We might pay dearly for such presumption. This lion may cross our path or leap upon us from the thicket, but we should have nothing to do with hunting him. He who meets with him, even though he wins the day, will find it a stern struggle. Let the Christian pray that he may be spared the encounter. Our Savior, who had experience of what temptation meant, earnestly admonished His disciples "Pray that ye enter not into temptation."
But no matter what we do, we shall be tempted; hence the prayer "deliver us form evil." God had one Son without sin; but He has no son without temptation. The natural man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards, and the Christian man is born to temptation just as certainly. We must be always on our watch against Satan, because, like a thief, he gives no intimation of his approach. Believers who have experienced the ways of Satan know that there are certain seasons when he will most probably make an attack, just as at certain seasons bleak winds may be expected. Because of this the Christian can guard against attack doubly: by fear of danger and by preparing to meet it. Prevention is better than cure: it is better to be so well armed that the devil will not attack you than to endure the perils of the fight, even though you come out a conqueror. This evening pray first that you may not be tempted, and next that if temptation is permitted you may be delivered from the evil one. - Spurgeon, Morning and Evening. |
