This week at the Bible study I’m teaching, one of the men asked about Matthew 6:13, “Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil.”

I’ve heard this verse questioned before, but it was the first time the question was directed to me personally, and I had to tell him that I hadn’t given it much thought, but that I would, and I would get back to him on it.

I’m glad I did. The study was very fruitful. This one verse has changed the way I pray in this last week since the question was raised. I will never glibly pray through it again!

The issue that this man had with it, and others have had, is the idea that God would lead us into temptation. “God does not tempt anyone with evil.” (James 1:13) So, then why does Jesus tell us to pray this?

It is a good question. I looked the verse up on Biblehub.com. And then used the Interlinear link to get at the Greek. The Greek word used here is (3986) peirasmon. It is defined as, “putting to proof” or “adversity.”

It is used 21 times in the New Testament. Twice in Matthew.  It is used here in Matthew 6:13, and again in Matthew 26:41. Where Jesus instructs the disciples to employ this powerful prayer. And where Jesus shows us the power in it.

Throughout the Gospels Jesus is seen spending His days healing and teaching, and then withdrawing to be alone and praying to the Father until late in the evening.

After the feeding of the 5000, Jesus puts the disciples into a boat and sends them back to Capernaum, while He dismisses the crowds and goes up into the hills to pray. Hours later He rejoins the disciples by walking on the water.

After the Last Supper, when Jesus celebrates Passover with His disciples for the last time, He leads them to an olive grove known as the Garden of Gethsemane. It was on a hill just outside of Jerusalem.

In Gethsemane, Jesus knows the hour of his testing, when His purpose and divinity will be “put to proof,” is here.  He knows he is about to be betrayed and arrested, but the disciples do not know that a moment of testing is coming to them too.

They go with him to Gethsemane and He tells them to watch and pray, that they may not fall into temptation, but they fall asleep and do not pray, or at least not as they should have prayed.

Meanwhile, Jesus has stepped aside by himself to pray. He says, “Let this cup pass from me, but not My will but Thine.” Jesus is essentially asking that if He can be spared from this trial or temptation, then please let that be, but if not then help Him to receive it and obey.  Jesus is modeling for us what “lead me not into temptation but deliver me from the evil one” looks like when we employ it in our hour of weakness.

When Jesus instructed the disciples to watch and pray He told them the reason why. He said, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

This reminds me of God coming to Cain in Genesis 4 and saying to him, “sin is crouching at the door, but you must rule over it.”

Cain was angry in Genesis 4. Jesus said in Matthew 5:22, that to be angry with a brother was to be guilty of sin against his brother. Now at this point, I think Cain may have been angry at God, not Abel, but nevertheless, God intervened and tried to teach him, “lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from the evil one.”

Life is hard. Relationships with people test our courage, and our compassion. Our spirit wants to do the right thing, but our flesh? Our flesh makes us weak. We hide from hard conversations, or we attack when we are hurting. We give a foothold to anger, and other evil things.

In the Luke version of this story, Jesus goes to Gethsemane. He prays the same prayer we see here in Matthew, “let this cup pass from me, but not my will, but yours.” But then Luke adds,  “And an angel came and strengthened Him.”

Jesus is showing us here, that “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” is not a prayer of avoidance. We are not praying, “smooth the way in front of me so I will not feel tempted or in pain.”

It is saying, “keep my heart and mind in the kingdom, even when the world is at its darkest.” It is saying, re-enforce my spirit, with your heavenly host, so that I win the battle within, and rule over my own flesh as I should.

“For Thine is the kingdom, and the glory, and the power, forever and ever. Amen.”