"And do not lead us into temptation..."
Now, this passage makes you ask all kinds of crazy questions.
-"Wait, God can lead us into temptation?"
-"Are we powerless if God puts temptation in front of us?"
-"Does God's sovereignty include this?"
The first thing I did was go to the Greek to try to prove there all of our English bibles somehow blew this translation. No luck so far.
Then I thought, "Should this passage be preached without the second half of the verse? Maybe it makes sense in the context of its parallel."
I'll be struggling until Sunday (and long after) with these questions.
But as we've seen throughout the Lord's Prayer, we are not taught to pray this prayer without follow up action. We don't pray the Lord's Prayer when we get to the end of ourselves. We pray this prayer as a call to enlistment in God's kingdom dream for the world.
So, we don't merely pray for God to keep us from temptation. We must also do our part in not walking into situations that clearly will tempt us. Too many times we blame God for problems that he couldn't help. He doesn't override our will to sin.
As you dwell in Matthew 6:13a, here are a few questions to consider and comment on:
1) What are God's promises related to temptation? (1 Corinthians 10:12-13; 2 Corinthians 12)
2) Is there any connection between this prayer and examples of God hardening Pharaoh's heart in the book of Exodus? (Also, see Hebrews 3:12-13)
3) What are some areas of temptation in your life that you should be diligent to stay away from as you pray this prayer for God's help?
4) What are some ways that Christians (those committed to putting the kingdom on display) might seek to implement this passage in order to proclaim the good news in 2012?
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