Matthew 6:13

“Don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.”

When we pray for our sins to be forgiven and for us to forgive others we are looking to the past. In this verse, the Lord’s Prayer looks to the future. Once again, the prayer is fiercely realistic. Although we have had the privilege of our sins being forgiven, we haven’t overcome the problem of sin. Every day we will still face temptation to be less than the best. We will be tempted to cut corners, to be selfish and to neglect the needs of others. However, we can look to the future with confidence because God promises to be our rescuer, if only we place our lives in his hands.

Temptation is incredibly subtle. The evil one knows our weaknesses and will exploit them in every possible way. As we face up to these temptations, we have the wonderful privilege of knowing that Jesus understands exactly what we are going through. In the letter to the Hebrews the writer says that Jesus: “understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15). We are not dealing with a God who gazes at life from a huge distance but one who has actually shared our humanity with us. What an encouragement it is to know that Jesus understands fully the temptations that we live with. In fact, he knew even more about the temptations than we do. The reason for this is that all too often we give in to temptations and so don’t experience their full force. Jesus, however, never succumbed to temptations and so he experienced their full power.

We don’t need to be fearful that one day we will be overcome by evil. As we look to Jesus we can be confident that, however great the challenge, he will deliver us from the evil one.

Question

What is the greatest temptation that you face, and how are you confronting it?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank you that you understand the challenges of life. Help me to stand strongly for you, however great the temptations. Amen