The Lord's Prayer recorded in St. Matthew's Gospel, 6: 9-13, is not a prayer that Jesus personally or habitually prayed but rather a pattern for prayer that He gave to His followers. One of the significant petitions in this prayer reads, "And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."
In these words it is obvious that Jesus understood the reality of a fatal flaw in human nature. The possibility that any one of us can be overcome by a temptation to do something that we know we ought not to do and never intended to do.
Furthermore, Jesus knew from His own temptation that Satan is relentless and powerful in his effort to exploit our weakness by what he hopes are irresistible temptations in order to wreck and ruin our lives.
If we are honest we would admit that we, along with everyone else in the world, have often experienced temptation and often yielded to it. Some in one area and others in another. What a strange phenomenon it is.
Notice a consistent topic in the daily news are the shocking stories of one highly esteemed people humiliated and disgraced by some scandalous indiscretion. It is evidence that Jesus was not using mysterious, or figurative language. He set forth the reality in precise terms and knew exactly what He was talking about.
The purpose of the Gospel is not only to give us a truthful diagnoses of our human flaws and how they came to be, but to inform us of the remedy. "And they overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the lamb and by the work of their testimony," Revelations 12:11.
The question is, how do we apply this remedy and overcome temptations that threaten our happiness and can ruin our eternal future? There is no easy answer. That is why Jesus includes prayer against temptation in the model prayer. The Scripture declares in James 4:7, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
But how do we resist: Will power alone, is not often successful against temptation. The Gospel teaches the first essential thing needed is to acknowledge our weakness and need in this life and death struggle.
The second thing needed is to earnestly seek the personal miracle of conversion or new birth which adds to will power "won't power" against temptations and their potential consequences.
Another strong defensive weapon is to find a Scripture from the word of God that applies to a particular temptation just as Jesus did in His temptation saying, "It is written."
We would be wise to make investigation into the deeper implications of these three steps a lifelong and persistent endeavor. We shall not always be successful in the struggles against temptations but the God of the Bible has provided forgiveness and redemption in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and is famous for His power to restore and bring beauty out of the ashes and ruins of human errors.
Pastor Gene Holman of Living Word Fellowship is a member of the Carson Valley Minister's Association.
