Fervent Prayer: Day 5 - "And lead us not into temptation"

The Lord's prayer teaches us some basic but very important aspects to our day-to-day walk with the Lord. However, an aspect that is often misunderstood is found in Matthew 6:13:

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

The misunderstanding is that we are to pray for the Father to help us avoid any (or all) temptation.

Let's start with God's nature in regards to temptation as seen in James 1:13 reads:

"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."

So God doesn't tempt us nor can He place sinful desires in our hearts for He has no sin.

That said, He may bring us to the presence of temptation within our lives. Proverbs 20:24 says: "A man’s steps are from the Lord." But He doesn't tempt nor put the desire in our heart. In fact, I'd argue that due to the nature of sin and its presence in this world and in our hearts, there isn't a day that goes by where temptation or an opportunity for disobedience is present.

Ultimately, what the prayer teaches us isn't to avoid temptation but that the temptation doesn't take us in. Our prayer should be that we not be lead into the temptation itself and that we find strength and guidance in God when faced with temptation.