Lead Us Not Into Temptation

Lead Us Not Into Temptation

I couldn't sleep last night so I began praying the Lord's Prayer (Matt 6) and got stuck on "lead us not into temptation."

It's coupled with "but deliver us from the evil one."

It's always easier to apply things to someone else and not me so  I thought of the children of Israel...  whom I used to beat up quite often until one day it hit me that I was just like them.

They  had seen the  miraculous.  God had orchestrated their release from slavery in Egypt.  As an encore, God parted the Red Sea.  He had been leading them with the cloud by day and pillar of fire by night so no way anyone could be confused.

"Think the cloud's  pointing north or south?"  Could not happen.  There was no doubt when the cloud moved into the wilderness, they should follow its lead....straight into a waterless expanse.

Three days in, they'd had it.  Kids crying, wives complaining loudly, men throwing up their hands, ready to mutiny.

The temptation was  to not trust God to meet their needs. The temptation was not to remember truth about Him...not to remember their history with Him.  It is easier to cave in and yield to a lot of things because ...they're just so tempting.  And these people were dying of thirst....there was no water.

"Lead us not into temptation," because its hard to remember God during temptation.  "Me" is sitting high on the throne...what I want, what I absolutely have got to have or die.  I cave in to temptation when I decide to sit down for awhile and mull it over.

The longer I hang out and waffle, the harder it is to factor God into the equation.

They could not yield and stay in their tents and pray and wait for God or yield and storm down and attack Moses and demand results.

We  don't want to be led into temptation. It's hard.  We fail often.  It's easier if I don't even GO there.

Precisely.

God uses temptations that we invariably find ourselves in because we're human...to give Him the opportunity to do something we cannot do for ourselves. To allow Him the opportunity to perform miracles that may not be a miracle to anyone else but us.

There was no water.  None.  Three million people.  It would take an act of God.  He was waiting this time, til they asked.  Moses could have turned around and led the whole bunch back to slavery....thinking it would have served them right.

But Moses did not give into temptation...he remembered to ask.  God answered.  Water miraculously appeared.

Moses could have prayed, "Lead me not into temptation....but if You lead me there, deliver me from the evil one...because You alone are totally capable of showing us Your power and might and  reminding us that You are God, meeting all our  needs, so we can give You glory."

Temptation is not the problem.  Giving in to temptation and the evil one who is cheering you on...is the problem...is the sin.

God delivered Mose from the evil one.  When the crisis peaked, he turned to God who met his need.

May every temptation lead us straight to You.