Deliver us from evil. Matthew 6:13
What comes to your mind when I say, “Prayer?” Perhaps you think about all the things you want God to do in your life. Or maybe you think about humbling yourself before Him and just confessing how much you need Him. Prayer might bring you to ask for God’s blessing and protection for others, those you know and some you’ve never met. Prayer might lead you to thank God for who He is and for all He has done.
In the middle of what we call ‘The Sermon On The Mount’, Jesus speaks to his followers about living a humble life and of giving to the needy. And then, without any transition, He gives us an example of how to pray, a model we refer to as ‘The Lord’s Prayer.’ In this, He teaches us to acknowledge and worship God, to seek Gods kingdom here on earth, and to ask for our basic needs, including forgiveness, and then concludes with our great need. What is this great need of ours? Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (Some scripts say, ‘the evil one.’)
I suspect most of us think we have so very many needs. We need to pay our bills, to be healthy, to love and to be loved by others. We need our children to behave and to believe. Our list of needs seems endless. But perhaps one of our greatest needs is to keep from the ways of temptation and to be delivered from evil…not just in terms of our eternal destination, but also in our daily life. I wonder what would happen if each day we concluded our prayers with this sincere request:
God deliver me from evil. Help me to set boundaries around where I go and where I do not go, boundaries in my thinking, in what I choose to look at, and in the words I say. Deliver me from the evil of believing lies and telling them, and from the evil of being both too lazy and too busy to see You and those You love as the mainstay of my day. Deliver me from evil that leads me into the temptation of living for myself, of ‘getting ahead,’ of seeking my pleasure at the indifference of the needs of others, the very thing that prompted you to teach us how to pray! Deliver me from the evil of neglecting the gifts you give to me, including the gift of today. Deliver me from the evil of fearing darkness more than delighting in Your light.
Lord, deliver me from evil, for Yours IS the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever! Amen!
“And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” Matthew 6:13
