Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done

On 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

This is a tough one to understand. We know that God does not tempt anyone (James 1:13), but we also know that temptation is all around us; we face it every day.   Shut your eyes and temptation plays with your imagination.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.” And Hebrews also says that Jesus was tempted in every way as we are yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15) so He gets it.

So what does it mean to pray that we might not be lead into temptation? How can Jesus teach us to pray that we might not be lead into temptation when elsewhere in the scriptures, handling temptation is what we are encouraged to do?

I think we might be talking about degree of difficulty here, as in 1 Corinthians. Lord, make sure it’s “no more than we can stand.” And then I think we might be talking about the element of surprise. Lord, don’t let the temptation hit me from behind, or don’t put me in a situation where I can’t even recognize the temptation until it’s too late.

Personally, I think this is part of the Lord’s prayer because, yes, I understand all this stuff, but Lord, please don’t forget I’m human, and I’m weak. I’m like a mild mannered Clark Kent, and I may not make it into the phone booth in time, in fact, where are all the %$#&! phone booths anyway?

I’m with David who prayed, “Don’t let me drift toward evil” (Psalm 141:4). I really don’t think it’s any more complicated than that.