And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Matthew 6:13 [1]
In 1893, Elisha Hoffman penned these words into his timeless hymn, “I Must Tell Jesus”:[2]
“Tempted and tried I need a great Savior…What must I do when worldliness calls me? What must I do when tempted to sin? I must tell Jesus, and He will help me Over the world the vict’ry to win…”
I don’t know what inspired him, but I’m sure it was life for him in 1893. And what about today, in 2025, is it any different for you and me? I don’t think so.
The Apostle John wrote
“this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”
It was Jesus, the Son of God, who taught us to pray, “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” [3] Later, the Son of God told us that “whatever you ask in My name, this will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” [4]
“I must tell Jesus, and He will help me Over the world the vict’ry to win…”
Can we trust Him when “tempted and tried” today? …trust Him to give us victory over the world and give glory to God? Let’s try to understand a few things a little better…
When we pray “and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”:
We are not praying:
The opposite: “And lead us to yield to temptation and let evil conquer us.”
Or, more selfishly: “And don’t lead us into situations where we may be tempted to sin and there enslaved by evil influences.”
But we might be praying:
“Father, lead me no further into this trouble and temptation. Please, if you will.
Holy Spirit, help me stand strong against wickedness!
Lord Jesus, get me out of this spot, I’m so sorely tested!”
Are you thinking, “What is this? I’ve never given it that much thought.” Or, surprised, do you exclaim, “Wow! That’s not what I was praying.” Or, do you say wistfully, “Man, I wish I could pray with that understanding.”[5]
Something foundational…
Let’s start with some foundational truths lying behind the spiritual power experienced when praying by faith in Christ to not be led into temptation but delivered from evil.
1, The Lord’s Prayer is not a formula, but a template (or pattern) for our daily prayers.
What words we choose today to follow the teaching of Jesus on prayer will depend on our personalities, our life situations, and God’s calling to each of our hearts. But whatever the words, following and believing in the teaching of Jesus on prayer, of first importance is to choose words that exalt God in is rightful place as King of our minds and hearts. And then, we will choose words that seek to put his will above our own in all matters of life and death.
Once our hearts are quieted before the Lord, we are more accurately aware of our true and deepest needs and are able to be more in tune without whatever grace God is ready to pour into the situation. For the moments of concern about paying the bills or having the strength in body and mind needed for today’s projects, the Lord’s Prayer calls for us to gratefully seek him for daily sustenance and the spiritual nurturing so vital to a life of joy and faith. For the moments of concern over what lies beyond us, our prayers may turn toward our relationships where we need so often to proceed in forgiveness.
But finally, for our consideration here, the greatest need of the moment that God’s Spirit may put his finger on is our need to overcome temptation in the trying situation this day has brought to our doorstep.
The final petition in the Lord’s Prayer focuses on that inner need, or compulsion we feel to live holy before God and bring a faithful witness forth to those in our circle of influence.
And so, when we pray, “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil,” we might be praying…
“Father, thank you for being God who never changes. You never lie and so can never be part of the temptation to follow ungodly desires from my flesh and unholy influences from Satan and his kingdom.”
Also so very foundational…
2. We need God’s help to face temptation and be rescued from evil.
Will we bear a holy resemblance to the Son of God in today’s trouble? Do we want to have victory over temptations to sin and in that victory to point others to God? Then, we need his help!
In Mark 14:37-38, Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane in what is perhaps the greatest test of character and purpose that he faced before dying on the cross for our sins. The passage reveals that he himself was facing temptation and would face it by kneeling in prayer before the Father. But, at the same time, his disciples with him would also face temptation and they too had only one recourse. Jesus gave them the way through the temptation of the moment to hide from his hour of trouble by going to sleep, but also the temptations to abandon him that would come later.
He asked them to pray — to awaken to their desperate need for the Father’s strengthening throughout, and deliverance from, the temptation.
“And He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, ‘Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
And so, we might be praying, “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”… [6]
Lord, you have not promised us a trouble-free life, or a life free of temptation, but you, Jesus, have shown us a way through trouble and temptation.”
“You are the Good Shepherd who leads us through the dark and dangerous valleys of life and grants us victory over evil.”
“Thank you for promising to always provide a way to escape and be free of the slavery and destruction that follows yielding to those temptations. Thank you, God, for giving us a way through temptation and out of slavery to ungodly desires and influences.”
We must see that…
3. What’s at stake when tempted are two things: (1) our growth in grace toward holiness and (2) our witness to the Christ.
Playing in the background of The Lord’s Prayer is something highly personal to each of us who feel the call of God upon our lives. It pertains to the final goal that God has for all his children: that we might be molded into the image of his Son, the Lord Jesus, by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives.[7] In the Church, we call this “sanctification” – becoming holy – “saints” not only in word, but in character and practice – set apart from sin and death, unto God.[8]
The biblehub.com commentary on Holiness as a Witness is very well stated and I recommend it. An early paragraph in the article summarizes our calling and our opportunity this way:
“Holiness serves as a distinctive mark of God’s people, setting them apart from the world. In the Old Testament, Israel was called to be a ‘kingdom of priests and a holy nation’ (Exodus 19:6), serving as a witness to the surrounding nations of God’s righteousness and justice. Similarly, the Church is called to be a ‘chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light’ (1 Peter 2:9).”
There’s no question that the light of a holy life shines in the darkness, drawing others to the truth of the Gospel. But that holy life is forged only in the fires of testing and temptation. [9]
Our growth in grace toward holiness
James teaches us to “Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith brings about perseverance. And let perseverance have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4)
Later, in that same chapter (1:12-18), James will declare that God cannot lead us to think or do evil because He himself cannot be so tempted. It’s not in God’s nature. Furthermore, as the source of every good gift, the Father’s unerring plan is for every one of his children to be “brought forth by the word of truth” (not lies or shifting shadows), so that like Jesus, we would be a new race with hearts completely transformed into ones like his own.
This goal for our lives should give us peace. The Scriptures clearly teach that God does not willingly afflict his children.[10] So trials and temptations are not his final perfect plan for us. Someday in his glorious Kingdom we will be completely free and holy as Christ is completely free of sin and dressed in the glorious beauty of holiness.
Hebrews 12:10 declares that God, our Father, “disciplines us for our benefit, so that we may share his holiness.”[11] The point is, as so often said or sung, this moment, whether good or bad, is for his glory and our good.
Our witness to the Christ
In the same sermon where Matthew records how Jesus taught us to pray, Jesus Christ not only calls his followers to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect,[12] but shine as “the light of the world.” [13] These words are spoken after warning us of the shaming and difficulty that will come into our lives as a matter of course when shining for him.[14] Shaming and difficulty can expose us to temptation to ungodliness, but they also present a glorious opportunity to shine!
The prayer of Jesus to the Father in John 17:18-21, should erase all doubts that temptation is an effort to stamp out the light of life in our hearts:
“As You sent Me into the world, I also sent them into the world. For their sake I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”
What a glorious vision God has for us in these dark valleys of life! The biblehub.com article mentioned earlier concludes:
“Holiness as a witness is a vital aspect of the Christian life, reflecting God’s character and drawing others to Him. Through personal conduct, communal unity, and reliance on divine strength, believers are called to live out their holy calling in a way that testifies to the transformative power of the Gospel.”
The way we are in temptation, and especially the way we emerge from it, is a testimony to the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
This is where the “rubber meets the road.” The test is not so much in the difficult circumstance, the physical suffering or loss, but the character of the one undergoing such a test.
“There is always a storm. There is always rain. Some experience it. Some live through it. And others are made from it.” –Shannon L. Alder
In the storms of life, the temptations are so great to sleep through what God is wanting from us, as Jesus’ disciples did in the garden, because we’re so focused on how uncomfortable or uncertain we are about our situation. There, in our exhaustion, the temptations are so great to stop caring about the bigger picture, to stop risking goodness and truth and start to hide out or hurt others, to stop trusting that God is good and his will is perfect.
All of those temptations are a test of character. And the kind of person we are after the storm is the kind of person that will be either a light or a darkness for others who are also left standing after the storm.
“He knows when we go into the storm, He watches over us in the storm, and He can bring us out of the storm when His purposes have been fulfilled.” –Waren W. Wiersbe
And so, we might be praying when praying, “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”…
“Thank you, God, for sending me as a witness to you as the Light of Life and your redeeming love into dark times and places where I might quite naturally be enticed to serve ungodly desires.”
Take heart, my friends
The teaching of Jesus in Matthew 6:13 is not meant to confuse us or dishearten us, but to encourage us to look to God for deliverance from evil—both the evil against us and also the evil tendencies still clinging to our souls.
This blog is probably part one of my reflections on praying my way through temptation. I have another part that discusses four helps to a better heart in the process of sanctification, but that will have to wait for another day’s posting.
And lest you think that all I wrote above is academic, I’d like to share a page from my Prostate Cancer Journey, dated April 1, 2025. This journal page is a copy of what I sent to my older sister Ruth, who has been such a tremendous comfort and strength to me on this journey. Here it is…
Dear Ruth,
I looked into the pit again this morning. It was another night of getting up every hour and a half in a hot flash, needing to pee.[15] I wish I could go back to bed and sleep but it often doesn’t come, and on nights like this night when it did come, it was fitful, filled with bad dreams – dreams in which I was angry and frustrated. It was a comfort and a help to be able to say Psalm 23 out loud against the darkness. But finally rising at 4:30 I had a hard time saying “thank you, God, for another day” – even though I tried. Soon my prayer became, “God help me not to give in to the darkness, the rage against this darkness of soul.”
A Christian brother from Oregon sent me a message last night which I opened up at that point. It was a simple retelling of his digging in the clay and seeing a rainbow, but it was the start of remembering there is a bigger picture and there is an end to all the crud we face. I started listening to some music to reset my heart and was touched very deeply by the song by Casting Crowns, “O My Soul.”
I turned to God In prayer to receive his peace, but now I turn to my sister and seek her compassion and understanding. I confess fearing to do so because I don’t want to push you away. I know how hard it can be to listen again and again to someone complaining or groaning or wallowing in self-pity. Oh God, is that who I’m becoming?
Why God put me together the way he did I’m trying hard to understand and accept. It’s so hard to be positive. There are moments now that I wish I’d never started this radiation thing and just let the Cancer run itself out and kill me. Wouldn’t that be better than struggling again and again with rage against the darkness? My heart tells me it wouldn’t be better and my mind remembers that God has said he is working all this together for some good somehow…
“Oh, my soul You are not alone. There’s a place where fear has to face the God you know. One more day, He will make a way – Let Him show you how. You can lay this down ‘Cause you’re not alone…”[16]
One of the incredible things about you, Ruth, is that I feel I can open up the curtains to the darkness of my soul, and you stay with me. I see that as one of the most incredible gifts of my life.
No need to reply. It’s enough to know you’re there, and I hope you can hang in there with me. The smiles will come again. The sun will shine again.
Loving you, fellow Dawn Chaser…
That day, April 1, turned out to be an amazing day full of God’s miracle-working grace, including an amazing response from my sister who also clings to God through many difficult days of pain and loss. So, by the end of that day, my heart was at peace and the struggles with living with cancer no longer presented a threat to my love for God and my devotion to him. Ruth was a light to me that day, but so was my family and other friends I met along the way God was making for me.
The Lord heard my prayer to be led out of temptation and delivered from evil—even though I didn’t use those exact words. As the Psalmist sings so simply, “He calmed the storm to a whisper and stilled the waves.” (Psalm 107:29)
May God give us all victory over temptation and evil today.
[1] Mark 14:38 — Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Luke 11:4 — Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.
[2] https://library.timelesstruths.org/music/I_Must_Tell_Jesus/
[3] Matthew 6:13; Mark 14:38; Luke 11:4, 22:40,46
[4] John 14:13; Matthew 7:7; 1 John 3:22, 5:14-15
[5] Chad Bird gives a brief, helpful comment, encouraging us to see this petition in the form of prayer so often used in the Psalms: “God don’t do this, but do this.” The two phrases together give the one thought behind the prayer. In this case, Bird’s conclusion is we are asking “our Father to rescue us, deliver us from every evil of body and soul.” See https://youtu.be/Ynp3UNgmVZQ?si=yR7JW2E8VeDDTmGS.
[6] James 4:7-8 advises, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”
[7] Romans 8:28-30; 1 Corinthians 6:11; 15:42-49; Colossians 3:9-10; 1 John 3:2
[8] 1 Corinthians 1:1-3; John 17:18-21; Acts 20:31-32; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; 1 Timothy 4:4-5; Hebrews 2:10-12, 10:8-15
[9] Job 23:10; Psalm 66:10; Proverbs 17:3; Isaiah 48:10; 1 Peter 1:6-9
[10] Joy comes in the morning – TODAY may be the day!
[13] Matthew 5:14; cf. Philippians 2:15-16 which calls us to “be blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine as lights in the world as you hold forth the word of life.”
[15] The therapy to treat my prostate cancer is twofold. I not only am receiving Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT), but also a hormone therapy to block testosterone. The hot flashes are side effects to the hormone therapy, made more troublesome by the deep weariness accompanying the radiation therapy.
[16] Casting Crowns, “O My Soul; Songwriters: Bernie Herms / John Mark Hall
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