Prepare
1. Begin with prayer asking the Holy Spirit to reveal to your heart his love and care for you and ask him to teach you today as you look at his word.
2. Read Matthew 6:9-13 (3 times slowly)
3. Use a journal to reflect on the truths below
Devotional
Today, we’re wrapping up our devotional series on the Lord’s Prayer, these devotionals have pressed into prayer as something done under the Fatherhood of God, prayer as a longing for His kingdom and will on Earth, and prayer as the humbling act of depending on God for everything we have and need and prayer as an act of pursuing forgiveness and power to forgive. Today, we’re look at the lines: Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil.
This is not an aspect of prayer I typically go to. Praise, that’s easy! Asking for provision! Of course! Praying for the city to be made new? Obviously! But asking God to lead me away from temptation. Acknowledging the dangerous road ahead of me, the perils, speed bumps, and sins waiting to insnare me? I don’t like thinking about that!
That’s exactly why I need this prayer. It reminds me, the world is dangerous. That my heart is dangerous and prone to wander into the territory of my own selfishness and my own attempts to build a kingdom. My heart is also ready to forget who I am, in Christ.
Leading Away From Temptation
These days are filled with temptation. We’re tempted to judge our co-workers, scream at our children, selfishly ignore the pain of others, belittle others, steal, hoard, and many other things. But temptation doesn’t begin with an action in front of us, but actually a posture of our hearts. It’s not the moment we see all the toilet paper, or the moment we rage against others. Temptation is planted long before that. The sin of hoarding is born from the lie that we aren’t children of God who’ve received every blessing. The sin of selfishness is born from the lie that we’re kings not servants. The sin of judgement is born when we forget we’ve been sent to comfort the world.
So we pray to God, lead us! Here’s what Jesus was always doing with his disciples and is doing with us through His Spirit: taking us through the perils of life but leading us to remember who we are in the most dire of circumstances. Leading us away from temptation. Jesus leads the way from sin, towards life!
Deliverance from Evil
St. Augusitine wrote well that evil is the absence of good. The world turned upside down, the world bent toward destruction. In the Apostle John’s language: darkness.
Evil is the darkest of nights when unseen powers conspire to destroy generations. Slave Trade. Genocide in Rwanda
Evil is darkest of corners. Brothels in Thailand.
Evil is the darkest of hearts. Hatred. Rape.
Disease, poverty, abuse, war, violence, the whole lot of it is evil. The world is distorted and consumed by evil.
Los Angeles native, Kendrick Lamar raps what our souls might long to do in this moment: “Everyday I try to escape the realities of this world.”
Jesus tells us, pray for deliverance! This cry for deliverance is at the heart of the Christian life. A life that sees the web of brokenness within and outside of us. It’s the cry of the people in Egypt. It’s the cry of the father who’s daughter is dying. It’s the cry of the widow. It’s the cry of every heart that turns to Jesus: Deliver us from this evil!
Jesus Saves
This prayer acknowledges the power of Jesus to conquer it all. Jesus said throughout his ministry and speaks into our hearts now: Time’s up for sin, death, and evil. The kingdom that will not lose has arrived. Darkness will be overwhelmed by the light. When Jesus says the kingdom of God is at hand as he stands on earth, he is claiming an already happening advancement of God’s victory over evil. He’s heard our cries. He is leading us into his life! He is delivering us into his kingdom!
Deitrich Bonhoeffer puts this together well:
“The kingdom of God, forgiveness of sins, justification of the sinner by faith - this is the destruction of demonic power, healing, raising the dead. Jesus goes out in his apostles & does his work. The royal grace which equips them is the creative & redemptive word of God.”
The good news about God—the presence of Jesus in history and the substance of his purpose on earth—is evil is vanquished. The King of God has reached into the world and defeated the kingdoms of evil.
Journal and Pray
Spend time journaling about the temptations you’re feeling to forget who you are and who God is. Ask the Spirit to lead you today. Cry out for deliverance. Celebrate his victory. Make this journal a prayer.