Lesson Five • The Lord’s Prayer – Part Two
Devotion 4: Do Not Lead Us Into Temptation
Pastor John Carter
“And lead us not into temptation.” Matthew 6:13
Jesus is bringing to the very forefront of prayer these elements of our life that need to be addressed. He points us to the spiritual food we need, the righteousness of God, and the amazing forgiving love of our Father. Now, He walks us through how to overcome the fleshly temptations of the world. This is ultimately the walk of a confessing believer, a Christian. It is learning to walk in the ways of righteousness, mimicking the behavior of Jesus, walking in mercy and grace, and learning to resist the devil and his temptations.
Listen to some of the apostles’ and early church leaders’ teachings on this idea of temptation.
In 1 Corinthians 10:12-13, Paul says, “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
In James 1:13-15, James writes, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
Jesus is saying we ought to ask God to keep us from temptation. Another way to say it might be to ask God to give you the ability to resist the devil, the evil one. We see that God Himself is not the tempter. He does not tempt anyone with evil, nor does He tempt anyone. However, the devil, the one like a lion seeking whom he can devour, is very much given the name of tempter, or accuser. In fact, in Matthew chapter 4, we learn of Jesus’ teaching on bread and spiritual food we see a special name given, “And the tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread’” (Matthew 4:3).
The tempter is the one who tries to get Jesus to relinquish His heavenly authority and submit to the authority of the flesh. The tempter uses the very substance of food as a tool to tempt Jesus. We know the tempter uses way more than just food to get us to submit to our flesh.
What are your temptations? Do you know what they are? Do you ask God to give you strength over them? Do you ask God to keep the tempter away from you? Have you set up safeguards against your temptations? What is your method for overcoming them? In Jesus’ teaching us how to pray, He is sure to teach us that the way to victory is indeed through prayer. Often times, we may view prayer as the last effective method to overcome our temptation; however, in Matthew chapter 6, Jesus is teaching us that prayer is essential to overcoming the temptations of the devil.
In 2 Corinthians 10:3-6, Paul says, “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.”
Paul is saying that we have to be of the mind that is ready and willing to obey versus the mind that is ready and willing to disobey. He says it like this to the church of Rome in Romans 6:12-14, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members [body] to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law [the law of sin and death] but under grace.”
Romans 6:17-18 adds, “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”
Romans 8:5-8 says, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Romans 8:11 states, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”
I know there is a lot in those passages of Romans. I would love to spend hours walking through them. I gave you a few passages to help illustrate the point of Matthew chapter 6, and hopefully, give you some powerful words of encouragement through Paul’s writings. Paul is talking about obedience and freedom and how we now, as believers who have the Holy Spirit, are to live out our life. That is talking about the present, current state of your body. Our body is mortal now, but will be immortal when we are made in the likeness of Jesus. I love these passages in Romans. There are many more that I like, but these bring me incredible encouragement. The first thing we see in Romans 6:12-14 is that Paul instructs us to not let sin “reign” in our mortal body. This means that sin is something that can be conquered and is something that believers can have victory over. It is something we experience in our “mortal body.” He continues with where and how this change can occur. It starts with a change of heart, a submission to sound teaching. He says that freedom from sin comes when we are willing to submit and walk in righteousness. Paul has a flare for the dramatic and says to be a slave to righteousness. In other words, obey it at all costs.
In Romans chapter 8, Paul continues to take us through this aspect of walking in the flesh and giving into temptation versus walking in the way of God and becoming a slave to righteousness. The contrast between where we allow our minds to dwell is really what Paul is focusing on. In Romans 8:11, Paul gives us his major point and that is the power of the Holy Spirit dwells in us. I do not know if you caught this or not, but I want it to be noted. The word “mortal body” shows up again in verse 11. Paul says that the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, God’s Holy Spirit, is the same Spirit that we can depend on in these “mortal bodies” to overcome and have victory over sin! I tell you, when I wrapped my head around this teaching of Paul, it helped me so much. I did not have to give into sin every time even though my body is made of flesh and desires fleshly things. I have the Spirit that is dwelling in me. That is far more powerful than my own flesh. I have the Holy Spirit who will help me overcome my fleshly temptations. If you are a believer, you have that same Holy Spirit in you. You can overcome your temptation and you do not have to give in to sin.
Praise God today and ask Him to give you the strength to overcome the temptations that reside in your life. Lean on the power of the Holy Spirit to help you overcome temptation. Be willing to walk hand in hand to help your brother and sister in Christ to overcome those temptations.