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c) The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13)
MATTHEW 6:13
13 Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. … (1 John 5:4-5 and 19)
The Heavenly Father will never mislead nor lead anybody into temptation, for His holy love saves us and does not destroy us. But if one of His children does not respond to the pushing and reproof of the Holy Spirit into purity, truth and love and remains in stubbornness and pride, then God allows the wicked one to fall in sin and shame. Thus, he recognizes that he is not good in himself, but corrupt and wicked from his childhood. He cries, repents and goes back to his Father begging His pardon and asking for his full change and sanctification.
Your heavenly Father wants to change you into His image. Christ gave you His own name. He calls you “Christian” that you may behave as anointed with His Holy Spirit and become saintly in love and know the joy of peace and kind patience. Where no part of your Father’s virtue is realized in you because of your hard-heartedness, God finds no other way but to allow temptation to blow upon you, such as disease, distress and disasters. He punishes you that you may listen to reason and go back repenting and seeking your salvation and sanctification in His power.
If you asked for yourself and for all believers, renewed repentance and keeping from temptations and from committing faults, you would be seeking both renewal and sanctification of hearts. Paul, having interpreted the principle of justification in detail in his epistle to the Romans, clarifies the sanctification and the renewing of the minds of believers, to present their bodies a living sacrifice, acceptable to God (Romans 12:1.2). Then you must be corrected too, for this is the will of God, our sanctification. The Holy Sprit continuously exhorts you to deny your haughty self and be filled with the humble love of God.
The temptations around you are numerous, for the movies, advertisements, books, clothes and all life have become one cry against the holiness of God. Wicked thoughts contrary to the commandments of the Lord come out of our heart. We all need prayer to be kept from temptations. So let us pronounce it consciously and believe in what we say in our prayers. The last goal of every temptation is our disobedience against the will of God and our departing of His covenant, to live independently of Him.
The Christian people are threatened with the danger of falling into many Anti-Christ-temptations. Whoever hears the gospel, believes it and experiences its power, but does not act under the obligations of God’s love and under the guidance of the Lord’s Spirit, hardens his heart. This is why you find, in countries that have experienced the grace of the Old and New Testaments, more atheists than you find among the nations who have not yet heard about the grace of God on the cross. Be cautious not to harden your heart against the voice of the Holy God. Do not resist the drawing of His Spirit towards forgiveness, chastity and truth.
Do not imagine that you are strong, clever and good, for we all are ignorant, weak and wicked in spiritual matters. Confess your inability before your heavenly Father and believe in the authority and help of Christ alone. This is the way in which the Son of God overcame Satan saying, “The Son can do nothing of himself.” The proud fall victim to the devil, but the meek repent and are justified in the name of Christ, walking in the power of His Spirit. He will dwell in the vast expanses of his Lord forever and become protected in the fire of temptations and the grim authority of death, for the life of God will endure in him.
Do not imagine that you are able to overcome Satan, for we are weak and helpless before the fallen angel of light. The devil is “older” than you and knows all tricks, lies and temptations. Ask Christ, the conqueror of death, the triumphant over the devil, to make you a partner in His victory. He who believes in the mighty Jesus shall stand by the Triumphant’s side. He is our shelter, in Him we are secure. Christ calls Satan “the evil one” because he is the source of every evil. Nothing is originated from him but destruction and corruption. The world stands in the battle between the Father in heaven and the evil one, between good and evil. Just as the first word in the Lord’s Prayer is “Father” and the last one is “the evil one,” your life goes between these two words which express the great character of God and the character of His enemy, Satan. To whom do you resort?
Do not seek salvation from the deceiving power of Satan for yourself only, but pray also that all mankind may be set free from the dominion of darkness and move into the kingdom of God’s family. Christ is the mighty deliverer. He redeems His supplicating church from the lurking authorities of darkness. Seek the coming of the Holy Spirit upon your friends that they may be filled with true love, for without the Holy Spirit they cannot do any good thing.
When Christ comes in glory, we shall rush to Him, with a shout, for in His presence the authority of Satan is finally ended. Then nothing separates us from the love of God, neither death, nor sin, nor temptations. In this last petition we insist that Christ comes soon, to manifest the kingdom of His Father publicly with the power of His glory. Therefore, the aim of the Lord’s Prayer is to realize the kingdom of our Father in heaven, which overcomes all contradicting powers.
PRAYER: O Heavenly Father, we worship You for Your love, for the salvation of Your beloved Son and for the power of Your Holy Spirit. Please overcome our disobedient hearts and sanctify us completely. Fill us with Your virtues that we may not become a victim of Satan’s. We are all unsuccessful and futile in the holy struggle, but Your powerful Spirit releases us, sets many others free out of the prison of the devil and carries us all to the kingdom of Your love that we shall participate in Your triumph over the evil one.
QUESTION:
- How are we made free from the evil one in our lives?