For the past three Sundays now, our pastor has been unpacking some verses in Matthew. For those not familiar with what has become called "The Lord's Prayer," it is found in a section where Jesus is teaching about praying. The earlier part of the chapter talks about prayers. Jesus says that we aren't to be calling undo attention to ourselves when we pray. He then lays out how we are to pray.
“This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." (Matthew 6:9–13, NIV)
The part Pastor discussed today was the last sentence. It has been the basis for jokes for as long as I can remember. I realize, with Pastor's help, that any temptation falls onto one of those 4-way graph things.
One of the arrow bars, say the back and forth one, is for the inside-self / outside-self continuum. Temptations aren't just those 'he made me do it' cop outs we tried to use when squirming out of trouble and blaming it on someone else. There are also those temptations that we bring onto ourselves. No matter how much I claim it has, that candy bar did NOT call out to me and make me eat it.
The up and down arrow bar fits perfectly to represent the fact that temptations come not only from our natural world, but also have roots in the spiritual realm. There are just some things that need prayer to help us stop doing. My thoughts go quickly to my depression. Like I have said many times before ... trust me if I could 'just suck it up and go on' I would! I have also heard shaking drug addictions are like that, too. Pastor listed off 9 strategies the evil one uses to destroy us and cause us to fail. And he said he stopped at 9 because of space! I do agree that there are no new sins - just new ways to do them.
I also want to counter one belief some people hold. God does not set up temptations before us to get us to fail. He doesn't reveal our sins to us because He wants us to feel shame or guilt. Our sins are revealed to bring us closer to Him. One of the takeaways today is that if we spend more of our time praying to avoid temptations, we may be able to spend less time praying for forgiveness for doing them.
Thank you, my friend for spending some of your time here with me. Have a good day and remember to choose JOY!
Happy Kid Inventors Day!
