"Lead Us Not Into Temptation"

This past Sunday we concluded our sermon series entitled, Prayer Guide for Disciples of Christ where our emphasis was the fifth petition, “lead us not into temptation”. Throughout this series we’ve learned that in Christ we share in His unique relationship to God in that we’ve been made children of God. Therefore, when we pray we do so from a place of intimate relationship saying, “Father.” Praying hallowed be your name and your kingdom come speaks to a present and future hope of God’s reign and rule in the hearts and minds of everyone around us. Petitioning for bread day by day and forgiveness of sins acknowledges our daily need for God to supply for us what we need for the day and our regular need to be cleansed of personal sins. This forgiveness of sins is not in order to enter into the Kingdom or to remain in it, but rather to not cause disharmony in an intimate relationship with our Father God. Finally, the temptation that Jesus is speaking about refers to the ordinary and regular temptations that every believer faces in life. It is designed to cause us to undermine God’s plans and purpose for our lives. Thanks be to God for Jesus’ victory over temptation designed to cause to bypass God’s plan of salvation through the cross. Through God’s power He overcame obstacles to his purpose and thus has made a way for His disciples to overcome temptation in their lives through the grace of God. I leave you with this promise from our Lord, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33b