The Lords Prayer: Yea Though I Walk (Part 7 by Anthony Cooksey)
The Lord’s Prayer: Yea Though I Walk - Part 7
“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which are in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
Matthew 6:9-13
Part 7:
We petitioned the Father to forgive us our sins. And with the understanding of how devastating sin is to Him and to our lives, we ask Him now for His covering- His shielding. We ask for him to guide us, protect us, and carry us through each and every temptation that we shall unavoidably be confronted with throughout our lives. We pray: lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Temptation is an interesting word here. We know that God himself does not tempt us. He doesn’t lead us into a traps. He doesn’t set snares for our feet watching to see if we stumble. He is our good Father. Remember?
And who among us would tempt our children to disobey? Who would dangle the proverbial carrot, in front of their child, just waiting to punish when it is taken?
Therefore, we must be careful to parse out what this means.
The Greek word for temptation used here by Christ can be more understood as a trial or a testing. We are praying that we might not be lead directly into a situation or circumstance in which we will be tested; a trial in which our faith will be strained under weight to verify its strength. We pray that our foundations will not be shaken to see if they hold firm. Here in lies another great paradox in the life of a child of God. We must meet trials in life but we also know how utterly weak we are and we do not want to fall. We know how prone we are to our wanderings. We are intimately familiar with our weaknesses.
How then, can our faith be proven? In what other way but difficulty or struggle or trial, is God’s faithfulness likewise proven true. Without temptation or testing or struggle, without sin and our flesh, the cross and the gospel itself would be rendered meaningless. Our imperfection makes trials certain. So, it is into the Lord’s refining fire that we must venture. We do not wade into His calming pool of water or lay on His plush clouds of tranquility. We do not wander through His endless fields of serenity. We are refined by a blazing fire in order to burn out our imperfections. This is not easy. It is also not pleasant. It is, however, necessary.
“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
1st Peter 1:6-7
Here we are called to rejoice in a time of great difficulty for the explicit purpose that our testing might be so trying that impurities in our faith might be burned away. This process is painful, but every wise and elder brother and sister will reflect with a smile on their lips the times in which their faith was proven true. All children who stand at the top of the stairs and rightfully decide to jump, trusting their father fully to catch them, smile when in His arms after the fear of falling has faded from memory. Let this be the way in which we live out our childlike faith. With fear and trembling but also with assurance that our God is supremely faithful.
This does, in no way, diminish the fear or trepidation we feel before entering into a trial. Christ himself was not going to the cross with unfettered joy. He, in fact, prayed that the cup of the cross might be taken from Him. Of course, His prayer did not end there though. He finished by putting the will of the Father above His own. And this should likewise be our prayer. It is right to fear the pain involved with trials; to fear how short of the standard we might fall. But it is equally right to submit to the will of the Father regardless of how difficult that submission may be because He promises us that He will never leave us nor forsake us and that He will allow for us an avenue of escape from every temptation.
In addition to trials, we must be aware that we live in a fallen world. And this place in which we go about our lives, working our jobs, raising our children and loving our spouses, is enemy territory. We are no longer of this world, but we are still in a world that is constantly at odds with our heavenly Father and would in an instant swallow us whole; entrapping us in a life consumed with the shallow pleasures it offers. And the ruler of this world, the ever-present enemy, is always seeking for an opportunity to devour us. And, lest we forget, while we are behind enemy lines, we also have an enemy in our own camp. Our hearts are in constant struggle. Leading us astray and into the welcoming arms of the prowling lion. Our spirit may be willing but our flesh is weak. It is prudent that we are aware or our relationship to sin, for if we are not particularly careful, we are certain to be deceived by its siren call and unable to avoid being shipwrecked.
What then is to be the posture of our hearts? The Bible tells us to “Watch and pray” in Matthew 26; to “Be sober, be vigilant” in 1st Peter 5; to “Take heed lest he fall” in 1st Corinthians 10. We are to be on guard, on the look out, always ready because we know how terrifying our foe and how vulnerable our flesh.
Though we are wary of our plight, we should be comforted in the knowledge that our temptation puts us in the same company of every solid follower of Christ before us and those who will come after. This is a shared trail that is only held in common with those who truly follow Christ and the will of the Father that sent Him. The enemy would not sooner waste his energy or efforts on an individual dead in his sins than to attempt to repent for his own transgressions. Your testing is proof that your faith is worthy of being tested. And it is at this that we can rejoice brothers and sisters.
“You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober.”
1st Thess. 5:5-6.
Remember who you are. Remember your calling. Remain in the light. Remain by the side of Christ. Remind yourself of
“Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.”
Galatians 1:4.
We have been delivered. We have been forgiven and washed white as snow by His blood alone. And if the blood of Christ which has delivered us, is daily at the forefront of our thoughts and prayers, we will surely be equipped to meet every sort of trial known to man.