The Lord’s Prayer - Day 7

This is the last of the three requests that we make for ourselves. We have asked God to provide for both our physical and spiritual needs. Now we ask his help to keep us safe from sin. The plea is divided into two parts, the first that we be not subject to too much temptation. Once again we can call on Jesus’ example and his teaching to demonstrate and illustrate how we are to resist temptation. The two occasions when he was particularly subjected to temptation come at the beginning and the end of his ministry. He went for forty days into the wilderness before beginning his teaching and healing, in order to consider how he could persuade men and women to follow him. In retreating for this period he showed us the need to set aside ‘quality time’ to consider the major decisions we have to make in our lives. For him the temptation was to take one of a number of short cuts to gaining respect and credibility and to remain in control of his life and events. His alternative was to take the hard way, as an itinerant preacher, with painful death as a stark reality to end his life.

We are seldom approached by recognisable Devils, in the way that Jesus was. The temptations we are subject to are equally real but may take considerable effort to discern and define. We can help ourselves from being subject to their influence in the same way that Jesus did.

We are told that when he was 12 years old that Jesus amazed the doctors in a Jerusalem synagogue with his understanding and answers. Even at that age he had made the study of the scriptures an essential part of his life. When tempted of the Devil, he knew from his studies the path he must tread, no matter how it ended. In the course of his ministry he repeatedly turned to the scriptures for assurance that what he proclaimed was rooted in the law of Israel. We now have the New Testament as well as the Old to turn to in our uncertainties.

The other great occasion on which Jesus was sorely tempted was in the garden of Gethsemane. Firstly he urged his disciples "Pray that ye enter not into temptation", Then having drawn apart from them he prayed until "his sweat was it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground". (Luke 22 vs 40 & 44)

^{Our prayer that we be not led into temptation has as its sequel the imperative to pray that we identify the temptations that attract us and pray for God’s help in resisting them. The two great weapons we have at our disposal against temptation are our knowledge and understanding of the Bible and deep reflective prayer. The first of these helps us to understand the nature of God and his love for us, the second to gain knowledge of God's purpose for us and to experience that love in all its fullness. What greater counter attraction to temptation could there be?}

The second part of what we ask God is "Deliver us from Evil". Does this mean that we are asking to be spared from natural disasters such as famine, plague and war? Is there a discernable evil power, similar to St. Paul’s concept of Principalities and Powers. What do we mean in Advent when we pray "that we may cast away the works of darkness?". Is there a perpetual war between the forces of Darkness and the forces of Light, as described in the 12th Chapter of Revelations? Or could it be that by giving us the ability to acquire an unprecedented number and variety of material possessions, and by developing our medical and agricultural services to give us all we could want, we are being conned into believing that we are self sufficient in our own resources and can live without God? For many people, the production and deployment of Nuclear weapons with their potential to destroy all life on earth is unmistakably evil. For most of us, the way in which the anniversary of the birth of Christ has become the materialistic orgy of the year, leaves us aware of how that which is good can be perverted by things outside our immediate control. Evil in these guises and others, such as the selfishness of the 'First World', has become part of the normative culture we live in. 

In examining the lives we lead and the society we live in, these manifestations are all too apparent. We can see things that are wrong but often we seem powerless (or just too selfish) to redeem ourselves from those evils we recognise.

If we look to Jesus’ teaching and example, and try to apply it to the world we live in we find we are called to act in ways which we would find very difficult to follow.

Jesus did not just preach against evil. In modern parlance, he took ‘direct action’ to combat it. In the Temple, hot with anger, he overturned the tables of the moneychangers. As a prophet, he constantly denounced the things he found wrong, knowing that this would lead to his crucifixion.

In praying that we be delivered from evil, we ask God’s help to discover where evil dwells in our lives and in our country and that he may help us decide how we are to resist it.

Meditations
Think or say, "Lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil", several times to yourself slowly. Think of the meanings of these words. Ask yourself how you interpret these words.

Think about temptation and sin in relation to your life. Can sin exist if nobody is hurt?

Is there a ‘Power of Evil’ abroad in the world? How without it can you explain the atrocities that man has committed to man?

Are there elements of our own society that are inherently evil?

Ask yourself "What can I do about evil in this world?"