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“Lead us not into temptation” is the most common way people pray that line in the Lord’s Prayer. Perhaps you’ve noticed that it sounds like we are asking God not to lead us into temptation which makes us wonder why God would lead us into temptation. For doesn’t the Epistle to James say, “For God cannot be tempted by evil and does not himself tempt anyone” (1:13). So we know that God wants what is best for us and our temptations are sure bets down a path of self-destruction. So this line, rather, is a plea for the saving work of God in our lives.

Temptation is all around us. Most of us, thankfully, have some level of self-control. But perhaps we know the pains of addiction in which the temptation to indulge in whatever that addiction is rears its ugly head. But non-addicts too experience temptation. Road rage, gossip, anger, the list can go on and on in which our everyday lives are confronted with experiences that tempt us to be less than who God is calling us to be. And sometimes, we fall.

But listen to the words of the Psalmist this weekend,

“Because you have made the Lord your refuge,

and the Most High your habitation,

There shall no evil happen to you,

neither shall any plague come near your dwelling.”

Fleeing temptation going to our refuge, our God, is the sure-fire way in which to combat temptation and sin. When we focus our eyes and our minds on Christ Jesus, then can we find the deliverance from evil that we pray next in the Lord’s Prayer.

I pray that this Lent, us here at St. John’s can learn how to renew our minds, seek the shelter of the Most High, and gaze our eyes upon the one who was tempted in every way like we are (Hebrews 4:15), Jesus Christ, and through these things rest in the hope and joy of the One who loves and saves us.

Yours in Christ,
Fr. Zach