This is part of a series of communion meditations working through the Lord’s Prayer, the previous post can be found here
Lead Us Not Into Temptation
Today, as we consider the Lord’s Prayer, we come to the sixth petition — “lead us not into temptation.”
The first question I have, when I read that, is: isn’t this a silly request? I mean, obviously God isn’t leading his children into temptation, right? In James 1:13 we are exhorted, ‘Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.’
But there is a world of difference between whether or not God, who is Good itself, will tempt you with evil (he won’t), and whether or not he will allow you to be tempted, or even guide your steps so that you are so tested (this he will do). In the Scriptures we see that God is providentially in control of every temptation.
Consider Job, a man who was upright and blameless in all his ways—according to God himself! And Job chapter 1 tells us that God suggested to Satan that Job would be a good man for testing and tempting through the removal of all his earthly goods, most of his family, and his health as well. So the Lord clearly does have some important role to play in the hard, evil, and tempting things that come into our lives.
And consider your own life. Are you ever tempted? Of course you are. Now, let me ask you—would it be more comforting to think “well, God has nothing to do with this, this is all the devil’s doing, I hope maybe God can help me out of it”; or would it be better to know, as the Scripture teach, that God is in control of every single event. That if a trying or tempting circumstance comes, that he is in complete control? It is only in knowing that God is in complete control that we can find confidence like that of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability…”
It is from this confidence that we can pray, “Oh Father, do not put in my path temptations that would cause me to fall. Do not let me tempted beyond the capacity you have given me through your Spirit to resist, or to flee. I want to be faithful to you.” We are praying here, not that no temptations ever come, but that the Lord would preserve us from temptations which would overwhelm us.
And as we pray this, we pray fully aware of the many times we have been tempted and have fallen. We pray painfully aware of our sinfulness. But we also pray remembering the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus who was tempted by the devil in the desert and remained faithful. The Lord Jesus who was tempted in the Garden, and remained faithful. The Lord Jesus who was tempted and tried in every way as we are, and yet did not sin. Instead, he went to the cross as a sinless sacrifice in our place, bearing our sin and our guilt and our shame, in his body on the tree. By his wounds are we healed, by his shed blood are we forgiven. Through faith in him alone do we receive forgiveness and life.
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