(God-Centered Praying) 8. Freedom from Evil
By Zac Poonen
"Do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil"
There are two sides to this petition - one, asking God to protect us, and the other, asking Him to deliver us.
Having prayed for deliverance from the guilt of sin in the previous petition, we now pray for deliverance from the power of sin. If we desire only forgiveness and not freedom from sin, it would indicate that our repentance has not been proper. Forgiveness of sins, is meant to be a gateway that leads on to a holy life, and not to a taking advantage of the grace of God.
Happiness and Power
All Christians seek to be happy. But Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart." (Matt. 5:8). The word "blessed" also means happy. So what Jesus was saying was that true happiness flows from true holiness. If heaven is a place of infinite happiness, it's only because it's a place of perfect holiness as well.
Happiness without holiness is a counterfeit. We should actually pray that God would make us unhappy if we are unholy. For otherwise we would be deceived about our spiritual state.
Many Christians seek God for power in their lives. But again this should not be divorced from an equally great longing for holiness. Otherwise it can be dangerous. For God to give power into the hands of an unholy man can be more dangerous than a surgeon operating with an un-sterile instrument. That would bring death instead of life.
That's why God cannot give too much of His power to many Christians. It would ruin and destroy them. We need to thank God that He hasn't given us all the supernatural gifts that we asked Him for! There are many cases of believers who have been destroyed by the gifts that they received, because they were not humble and holy enough to use them aright. We should long for holiness and power in the same measure. Only then are we safe.
How God Uses Satan
True holiness is the result of a battle. It doesn't come to the armchair Christian who wants to sit back and `be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease.' It is only as we fight the battle against our lusts and against Satan that we become holy.
We may then ask the question, "If the devil is such a hindrance to our holiness, why doesn't God destroy him?"
The answer to that is that the devil is, in a sense, necessary for our spiritual growth just as a furnace is necessary to purify gold. It's only when our muscles are subjected to resistance, that they become strong. Otherwise, we would remain fat and flabby. It's exactly the same in the spiritual realm. We need resistance if we are to be strong spiritually. And this is why God permits Satan to tempt us.
The man who has an easy way through life, will be spiritually weak, flabby and impoverished. He won't be able to do all that God wants him to do. But the one who has gone through trials and testing successfully, will be strong and capable of doing all the will of God.
That's one reason at least, why God hasn't destroyed Satan.
Why did God place one forbidden tree in the garden of Eden? Some may feel that if God hadn't kept that tree there, Adam would never have sinned. But that tree was necessary for Adam to become holy. There can be no holiness for man without temptation. That's why God permitted Satan to enter the garden of Eden.
Adam was innocent - but innocence is not holiness. Adam would have remained innocent all his life and never become holy if he had not been tested. Innocence is a state of neutrality, and from that state of neutrality to become positively holy, Adam had to exercise a choice. He had to say ` No ' to temptation and ` Yes ' to God. Only then would he become holy. And so he had to be tempted. Unfortunately, he said `No' to God and therefore became a sinner.
Temptation and Sin
Jesus too was tempted in all things as we are (Heb. 4:15). But the difference between Him and Adam was that He always said `Yes' to God. In order to be a perfect man, the type of man that God wanted all men to be like, Jesus had to learn obedience from the things which He suffered. He faced temptation and overcame, and thereby, was "made perfect" (Heb. 5:8,9).
That was why Jesus prayed for His disciples saying, "Father. I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from evil" (Jn. 17:15). Jesus knew that His disciples could never become holy if they were taken away from the pressures and trials and temptations that they would face in this world.
We need to distinguish between temptation and sin. If we are suddenly tempted by something that we see accidentally, that's not sin. But if we continue to look at what tempts us, or to think about it, then we sin. We can't avoid being tempted. But we can certainly choose to turn our eyes and our mind away from what tempts us. It's the way we exercise our will that determines whether we are holy or sinful.
God doesn't hold us guilty for being tempted. But He certainly wants us to resist temptation. As someone has said, "I can't prevent the birds from flying over my head, but I can prevent them from making a nest in my hair." You can't prevent temptation from coming to you but you can prevent it from settling down in your mind!
God's Word does not teach that we should face as many temptations as possible in order to show how strong we are. No. We are to run away from temptation. Paul tells Timothy to flee from the things that tempt him (2 Tim. 2:22). We must run away from the love of money, from flirtatious women and from anything that will lead us away from God.
Our attitude to temptation should be, "Let me keep myself as far away from it as possible". We are not to be like little children who try to find out how near the edge of a cliff they can go without falling down, or how close to the edge of the railway platform they can stand without the train knocking them over. That's not the advice any sensible parent will give his child. We tell our children to keep far away from such dangers. That's what God tells us too.
This petition really means, "Father, don't allow me to face temptation that is too strong for me." It is the cry of one who knows that his flesh is weak, and who realises that he can easily fall.
Being Prepared to Face Temptation
In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus told Peter, James and John, "Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation" (Mt. 26:41). Jesus knew that there was temptation ahead of them and He sought to prepare them. But instead of praying, they went to sleep. As a result, when the temptation came, Peter chopped off a soldier's ear. He fell into sin, because he had not watched and prayed. Jesus however, conducted Himself in a pure and loving way because He had prayed.
God is always faithful to warn us in advance. All of us must have, at sometime or the other, heard the voice of the Spirit in our hearts saying, "Spend a few moments in prayer now." Did you recognize that as the voice of God seeking to prepare you for some temptation that lay ahead of you at that time?
What have you usually done at such times? Like the disciples you may have ignored that voice. And when the temptation came you fell. God had tried to prepare you for the temptation. But you had not listened.
Every Temptation Can be Overcome
God has given us a wonderful promise in His Word that He will never allow any trial or temptation to come to us that is too much for us to bear or overcome (1 Cor. 10:13). In other words, He will check each trial and temptation to see if we are capable of overcoming it. Only then will He permit it to come to us. A good teacher would never give a 9th-standard examination paper to a 2nd-standard student. He would only give a paper corresponding to the student's standard. So does God.
In the light of this verse, is it right then to feel that any temptation or trial that you face is too strong for you? No. It is obvious that God doesn't think so. Otherwise he wouldn't have allowed it to come to you. The very fact that God has allowed a temptation to come to you is proof that you are strong enough to overcome it.
So we need to look at temptation like this: "God has allowed this temptation to come to me. So that is an indication of His confidence in me. He knows that I can overcome even this; and He will certainly give me the power of His Spirit to overcome it." If we look at temptation and trial like that, we can overcome everything that comes to us.
God has also promised to write His laws upon our hearts and in our minds (Heb. 8:10). He works in us through His Spirit both TO WILL and TO DO His perfect will (Phil. 2:13). So we need never be defeated.
Continued: