“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Matthew 6:13

Today, we wrap up our study of Matthew 6 and Luke 11 “The Lord’s Prayer.” So far,

we’ve seen Jesus teach his disciples to pray for more Child-like affection and Christ-

centered direction. As we come to the end of this prayer, we see one final

commendation from Jesus that we should be asking from our Heavenly Father and that

is more “Holy Spirit Protection.”

“lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” Matthew 6:13

Again, we have to be careful not to misunderstand what this text is saying. It is not

saying, “God, don’t tempt me.” We know from James 1:13 that God does not tempt us

with evil:

“When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted

by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;” James 1:13

In this case, I like the New Living Translation for Matthew 6:13 which reads:

“And don’t let us yield to temptation”

The prayer is NOT “God, don’t tempt me.” Instead, the prayer is “God, help me, through

the power of Your indwelling Holy Spirit, to keep from giving into the hundreds of

thousands of ways that my sin-stained heart pulls me in the direction of sin.” The final

part of this prayer is a final caution against our true adversary in this life. Jesus teaches

us to end our prayer with this request: “deliver us from evil.” Again, I like the New Living

Translation over the English Standard Version because I think it gets more to the

original intended meaning that Jesus had when teaching his disciples how to pray. The

NLT states: "rescue us from the evil one.”

In other words, there is evil in this world and behind that evil is an evil “one” who desires

the unraveling of everything we’ve been taught to pray for by Jesus. The evil one would

have me profane the name of my Father. The evil one would have me live for my will,

not my Saviors. The evil one would have me grieve he Holy Spirit and gratify the desires

of my flesh. The evil one would have me withhold forgiveness so that forgiveness would

be withheld from me leading to my eternal death.

Application: This year, pray a little bit more in 2024. Pray for more Child-like Affection for

your Heavenly Father, Pray for more Christ-centered Direction from Jesus and pray for

more Holy Spirit Protection from the evil one.



For further study:

Here is what will hinder your prayers from being answered: Psalm 66:18, 1 Peter 3:7,

James 4:3

By Jimmy Carter

Jimmy serves as the Ministries Pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church. He is married to Carrie, his treasured

wife of 24 years, and they have one beloved daughter named Christy Ann “C.A.” who is a Senior at LCA

and will attend UK and play golf for the Wildcats next Fall.