Our Lord and His PrayerНамуна

What do you like most about The Lord’s Prayer?

I appreciate that every part of the prayer takes us back to the way God has interacted with His people since the beginning. Today’s request is no different: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

Paul does a great job of applying this in 1 Corinthians 10.

To set the stage, Paul tells us that our Christian lives aren’t that much different from the Israelites (v.1-4). Just as God leads us through His Word, so, too, did He lead them. Just as we are baptized into Jesus, they were baptized into the leader God appointed for them. Just as God nourishes us, He nourished them. And although they didn’t know it, all of this was for them, as it is for us, the work of Christ. The details between our story and theirs may be different, but it’s the same story.

Both stories include relentless and exhausting wrestling with temptation. Paul lists some we have in common:

• Idolatry (v.7) - Giving our attention to false gods (like food, sex, TV, rage, popularity, political power, etc.) is still a temptation.
• Sexual Immorality (v.8) - Maybe we don’t do it like they did, but you don’t have to throw a stone very far today to find people addicted to porn or Christians who are compromised in their morality.
• Impatience (v.9) - We, too, grow impatient with the speed at which God seems to be working in and around us.
• Grumbling (v.10) - We also find it all too easy to complain and rebel.

Here’s the incredible part: “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come” (v.11). God wants us to learn from the temptations they did not dodge so that we can live differently than they did.

If we pay attention to the ancient Israelites, we will see that our temptation is not unique (v.13a) and that some temptations cannot be escaped; they can only be endured (v.13b). Most importantly though, we will learn that we MUST ask for God’s help in overcoming the evil one and the temptation He brings our way (v.12).

May you ask for and accept God’s way out when you face temptation.