“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

At first glance this petition seems so easy, but as I have pondered this a bit, this simple request is a bit more involved than it first appears. So to get a bit of context let’s look at some of the other verses regarding temptation. Here’s one we looked at a couple of months ago from James.

Let no one say when he is tempted,

In this passage we see that the primary source of temptation is our own desires. It is our desires that set in motion this terrible progression that ends in our death. But the situation is not hopeless. For those in Christ have been given resources that allow us to live free from the tyranny of our desires.

For example, consider Paul’s advice to the Corinthians:

Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands

Paul is warning his readers that sin is never far away, and that they should never presume that they are safe from it because of past successes. He goes on to describe how their temptation, rather than being uniquely powerful is the same temptation that everyone faces. Moreover, God will faithfully shield you from any temptation that is too strong for you.

By saying this he is removing all the common excuses we give for our sin. All the “What else could I do” or “I guess that’s just who I am” nonsense that we desperately try to tell ourselves to justify our own evil falls on the floor in light of this understanding of temptation and sin.

Idolatry and Temptation?

He ends by warning them to “flee from idolatry” a warning that far too many modern Christians ignore, thinking that since we have no little statues on the shelf we are not idolaters. This warning, rather than being irrelevant today, is deeply connected to Paul’s thoughts on enduring temptation. It is all the false hopes and false sources of help that we cling to that lead us into temptation and sin. In other words, our idols are a snare to us, just like they were in the biblical stories.

This world is thoroughly idolatrous and we will fall into its idolatry unless we knowingly and persistently reject it. A holy thing is a thing dedicated to a single use only. We are to be holy. We are to be dedicated to God alone and trust only in Him.

When we give the trust that belongs only to God to any other thing we become idolaters. We open the door to temptation and sin with our own hands.

And finally we have this advice, given by Jesus as he and his disciples prayed the night before his arrest.

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.

Coming full circle now, we are back to a prayer that is very much in the same tone we heard in the Lord’s prayer where we began. Here the disciples are tired and keep falling asleep while Jesus is praying for the strength to endure his coming trials.

He warns his disciples to pray that they do not enter into temptation. He is advising them to do what he did and pray for help to follow God’s will rather than their natural desires and thus fall into temptation and sin.

Then he adds an observation that is often used as an excuse for failure, “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”. Rather than and excuse for failure this is actually the reason why they need to pray. The desires of our flesh are always close at hand, and will trip us up if we are not careful to trust in the strength of God alone, rather than the strength of our own will.

So what does that mean to us, today?

Today like every day our base physical desires will harass and nag and whimper and whine and generally try to guide our every decision. Rather than be surprised, we should pray and pray often and never give up, because the temptations of our flesh and this world will never quit. Freedom from the slavery and tyranny of sin is a big part of our new life in Christ, through faith. Faith that when Jesus died in a real way, we died. We are dead to sin and thus no longer need to be controlled by it.

This is the life of faith, this is the way of the cross. This is the way of freedom leading to eternal life. So today let’s not pray wistful and futile prayers of unbelief, but the prayer of faith that the death and resurrection of Christ set us free as well. And in him we can not only know about this freedom, we can live in it.

Have a great week!

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