The last request that Jesus outlines in the Lord’s Prayer completes our picture of who we are as God’s children—we need his provision, we need his pardon… and we need his protection.

The request for God to ‘lead us not into temptation’ sits parallel with the request for ‘the evil one’ to be kept at bay. Both are a plea for spiritual protection, for God to walk us away from the allure of sin and the work of the devil.

And in both areas, we must be alert to the very great danger we face, a danger that we can often be unaware or unwilling to confront.

And in both areas, because Jesus met the devil and commanded him to ‘go away’ - and then beat him at the cross—we have complete confidence that our Father hears our prayer, and can and will act on it.

And in both areas we are given all that we need to resist temptation and flee the devil—just look at the suit of armour that Jesus has tried and now given us (cf. Is.59:15ff; Eph.6:10ff).