Given September 10, 2009

“Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” Matthew 6:13.  I often wondered about this passage.  Surely God wouldn’t purposly lead us into something potentially bad.  So why did Jesus say that?  The Holy Spirit gave me an answer on this today.  He said it means the opposite of what is seems; “lead us not into” means lead us AWAY from, and that’s what He does.  Does that make sense?

So here’s how I view it: We’re walking down a path, God and me, and I hear an invitation off the path to come take a look.  God says, “No, don’t go over there, come this way.”  That’s leading me AWAY from temptation.  So I go with God but the demons who were tempting me run on up ahead and confront me.  Of course, God tells them to “git” and they run off.   This time, He has delivered me from evil.

That helped me to better understand this passage.  What do you think about it?