“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:13)
REFLECT
I am sure you’ve seen a scary movie or two in your lifetime. I don’t get it, but people love these things. There is a whole genre of film that focuses on the topics of demons, angels, hauntings, spirits, spooky dolls, and killer clowns. Eager movie-goers grab their popcorn to watch these movies with buttery fingers covering their eyes. The public loves these films because they know it’s all fake. It’s a rush to get scared when you’re not in any real danger.
The unfortunate reality is that evil is real, and it can be dangerous for you. When Jesus closes the Lord’s Prayer, He speaks to our need for protection from spiritual attacks. Jesus says, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” We are in a spiritual war. It doesn’t look like a conventional battle or a scene from a horror movie. It’s not scary; it’s sneaky. It doesn’t look like levitating tables and demon dolls. It looks like an overwhelming urge to stray from God’s path for your life. The “evil one” uses temptation to prevent us from experiencing all God has for us
RESPOND
This closing is actually a direct mirror of the standard prayer that Jewish parents would pray with their kids in the morning. Together, the family would pray, “Bring me not into the power of sin, And not into the power of guilt, And not into the power of temptation, And not into the power of anything shameful.”