The first part speaks of our material needs. The second part speaks of our relationship with the brothers and sisters. This part speaks of our relationship with Satan. “Do not bring us into temptation.” This is the negative request. “But deliver us from the evil one.” This is the positive request. On the one hand, when we live for God on earth and have a strong desire to be for His name, His kingdom, and His will, we have material needs; we need to ask for our daily bread. On the other hand, our conscience needs to be clean and void of offense before God; we need God to forgive our debts. But there is another thing. We also need peace; we need to ask God to deliver us from the hands of Satan. Brothers and sisters, the more we take the way of the kingdom of the heavens, the greater the temptations will be. What then should we do? We can pray and ask God not to “bring us into temptation.” Brothers and sisters, we cannot be so confident in ourselves that we can scorn any temptation. Since the Lord has asked us to pray, we should pray that God would not bring us into temptation. We do not know when temptation will come. But we can pray ahead of time that we not be brought into temptation. This prayer is for our protection. We are not waiting every day for temptation to come. Rather, we are praying every day for temptation not to come. We should ask that we only encounter what the Lord allows to come upon us and not encounter anything that the Lord does not allow to come upon us. If we do not pray this way, we will not be able to withstand temptation for a moment; we will not be able to accomplish anything. We must ask the Lord to not bring us into any temptation, not allowing us to encounter anyone that we should not encounter nor to come across anything that we should not come across. This is a protective prayer. Brothers and sisters, we have to pray for God to protect us so that our daily bread is provided, our conscience is clean, and we do not face temptation. In everything, we have to ask the Lord not to bring us into temptation. We should pray that we do not encounter anything that the Lord has not permitted. Daily, we have to ask God to keep us from temptation.
Not only do we have to ask God not to bring us into temptation, but we also have to ask Him to “deliver us from the evil one.” This is a positive prayer. No matter where Satan puts his hand, we have to ask the Lord to deliver us from the evil one. In our daily bread, in the matter of condemnation in our conscience, and in any temptation, we have to ask the Lord to deliver us from the evil one. In other words, we pray that we not fall into the hand of the evil one in anything. In reading Matthew 8 and 9, we find that Satan’s hands are beyond what we expect and know. They are hidden behind the fever which comes suddenly upon a person’s body (8:14) and the storm which rises suddenly from the sea (8:24). They cause the demons to attach themselves to men and drown the pigs (8:28-32). They work within man’s heart and cause him to reject and oppose the Lord for no reason at all (9:3, 11). In short, Satan is out to harm man and inflict suffering on man. Therefore, we have to pray that we will be delivered from the evil one.
The three desires concerning God are basic prayers, and the three requests for ourselves are protective prayers. We ask the Lord for our daily bread not only because we want to eat. We ask that our conscience be without offense not only for the sake of having a good conscience. We ask the Lord to deliver us from the evil one not only because we want to be delivered from the harm of the evil one. We pray for all of these things in order to live longer on earth to perform the work of prayer so that the Father’s name will be sanctified, His kingdom will come, and His will will be done on earth as in heaven.
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