HoHum:
Do we know someone who flips out if we sit on their perfectly made bed? Do we know someone who loses it because one of his pens is missing from the pen jar on his desk? Do we know someone who is so organized she would heckle Martha Stewart for being sloppy? Do we know someone who knows exactly how everything should be done and has no problem telling us? What is the problem with these people?- control freaks.
I want to be lead by God and not by unrealistic demands of others. Need God’s help to order my steps, some of the song lyrics are here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO741IQbPPk): Humbly, I ask Thee to teach me Your will; While You are working, help me be still; Though satan is busy, God is real; Order my steps in Your word; Bridle my tongue, let my words edify; Let the words of my mouth be acceptable in Thy sight; Take charge of my thoughts both day and night; Please, order my steps in Your word
I want to walk worthy, My calling to fulfill; Please order my steps Lord; And I'll do Your blessed will; The world is ever changing But You are still the same; If You order my steps. I’ll praise Your name. Psalm 119:133: “Direct my footsteps (Order my steps) according to your word;, let no sin rule over me.
WBTU:
Recite the Model Prayer together
Jesus starts with a 3 part petition that aligns us with God’s reputation, kingdom and will. “Hallowed be they name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”
Next, He teaches us to turn our thoughts and prayers toward ourselves and our needs in what can be understood as another 3 part petition: “Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
We can see the brilliance in Jesus’ progression of thought in this prayer. He seems to understand that most of us like to control things. We are usually reluctant to surrender control and seek God’s leadership in our lives. Therefore, Jesus does not being this prayer with an act of surrender but an acknowledgement of our relationship with God (love people and lead them to a relationship with Jesus Christ) “Our Father which art in heaven.” Then he teaches us to align ourselves with God’s reputation, kingdom, and will in prayer, because prayer is not about getting things from God but partnering with God. And then, once we do that, He tells us to present our most basic needs to God- to be fed and to be both forgiven and forgiving. Only after all of this does Jesus teach us to ask to be led. “And lead us not into temptation.” When we pray this is might be good to pause after the words “and lead us.” This can be a prayer of submission (PRAY- Praise, repent, ask and yield).
Thesis: Focusing on the phrase, “Lead us not into temptation”
For instances:
A. Pray to be led (and pray for grace to follow)
Give, forgive, and now lead. 3 simple requests but each has profound effects. Each may have been rich with allusion in the mind of Jesus and in the minds of His earliest students in prayer. When Jesus said, “Give us this day our daily bread,” He and His listeners probably couldn’t have helped but remember the experience of the Jews in the wilderness, when they complained of hunger and God answered with manna, saying, “In the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God” (Exodus 16:12). When Jesus told them next to pray, “Forgive us,” those words may have brought back to their memory of Israel’s impatience and complaining- still, after having been provided manna day by day- that prompted a scourge of “fiery serpents” in the camp that brought grief, sorrow, repentance, and prayers for forgiveness and healing, which were answered when Moses lifted up in their midst a “bronze serpent” on a pole (Numbers 21:4-9). Similarly, when Jesus said to pray, “And lead us,” He and his hearers might have recalled the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night- the GPS system by which God led his people out of Egypt and through the wilderness, step by step, turn by turn, until they crossed the Jordan and entered the Promised Land.
Need to pray to be lead like this, and pray also for the grace, wisdom and courage to follow. Pray, “Lead me in the way everlasting” Psalm 139:24. Pray, “Lead me in your righteousness” Psalm 5:8. Pray, “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I” Psalm 61:2. Pray, “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground” (Psalm 143:10).
In the words of hymn writer Joseph Gilmore, pray: Lord, I would place my hand in thine, nor ever murmur nor repine; content, whatever lot I see, Since ’tis Thy hand that leadeth me! He leadeth me, He leadeth me, by his own hand He leadeth me; His faithful follower I would be, for by His Hand he leadeth me.
B. Pray to Not Be Led into Trials and Temptations
The audience to these prayers would have been reminded of Israel’s history through “Give us,” “Forgive us,” and “Lead us.” The whole phrase, “Lead us not into temptation,” takes Jesus back to his own wilderness experience, when according Matthew 4:1, “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” Jesus had to have in his mind his clash with the devil after 40 days of fasting and solitude. It would be completely understandable for Jesus to tell His followers to pray to not go through anything like what He endured in the desert after His baptism. I think all of us would give in to the temptations but not Jesus. From this Jesus knows that temptations are a strenuous trial for anyone to face. Jesus wants us to be spared from this kind of experience. Hebrews 4:15: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are —yet he did not sin.” Yes, but I am not Jesus. Deliver me but also spare me
Now when the Matthew and Luke record these words, “Lead us not into temptation,” they used a Greek word which can also mean trial, calamity, or affliction. For example, it is the word Jesus used during His last supper with the Twelve, when He told them in Luke 22:28, “You are those who have stood by me in my trials,” meaning the low points of His life and ministry to that point. So ask not to be led into a wilderness of temptation. Ask for God’s help in avoiding sin- in evading even the temptation to sin (1 Corinthians 6:18- Flee from sexual immorality). “I don’t want to go somewhere if I know that you’re not there, Cause I know that me without you is a lie.” Also ask to avoid trials and afflictions, big or small, from cancer to flat tires. Just as we ask for daily bread and daily forgiveness, ask for daily avoidance of bad stuff, whether it is a toothache or a tidal wave. We will not avoid every temptation or trial but we will never know how many misfortunes our prayers will have averted. Speaking only for myself, I’d rather pray daily not to be led into trials and temptations and let God, in His love and wisdom, answer according to His reputation, kingdom and will. Hey, but doesn’t the word say that trials and troubles make us stronger in our faith? Yes, but there is no reason to ask for these, they will come. Jesus said in John 16:33 “In this world you will have trouble.” We find some of the prophets having visions about calamities and they pray and the calamities never come about. This is what “Lead us not into temptations (trials)” is talking about. “Lord, give us the patience of Job,” No, No, No, remember what happened to Job to bring about that patience?
C. Pray to be led, even if it means suffering
Luke 22:39-43: “Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.” Jesus, who had taught his followers to pray, “Lead us not into temptation or trial,” once again told them to pray against temptation, before He withdrew to pray not to be led into the most intense trial He had ever faced. In fact, Matthew’s account says that Jesus asked 3 times to escape the coming trial. But Jesus had to face it anyway. We are never told exactly how and when Jesus heard the Father say no. Was it an audible answer after His third request? Did the angel deliver the news before offering the necessary comfort and strength? Did Jesus figure it out when He heard the crowd coming to arrest Him? We will never know for sure. We only know that His request, “Not my will, but yours be done,” was granted, while “take this cup from me” was not. Jesus words teach us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation.” His example teaches us to trust God’s good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:2) even when it means suffering. We must pray to be led, even though it means being led to a cross.
Nearer, my God, to Thee, Nearer to Thee! Even though it be a cross that raiseth me; Still all my song shall be, nearer, my God, to Thee, Nearer my God to Thee, Nearer to Thee
Pray to be lead. Pray to be led even if it means stress and strain and suffering, and at times it will. It may be a furnace like that which the 3 Hebrews endured, or a field of battle, such as the one where David triumphed over Goliath. It may be a throne room (like Esther) or a dungeon (Like Daniel). It may be a garden and a scourge and a cross, such as Jesus endured.
After Jesus reinstated Peter, they have a conversation about what awaits Peter at the end of his life. John 21:18-19: Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”
And when my task on earth is done, when, by thy grace, the victory's won, e'en death's cold wave I will not flee, since God through Jordan leadeth me. He Leadeth Me, He leadeth me, by His own hand, he leadeth me; His faithful follower I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me.
Psalm 23:3-4: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
“Lead me all the way from earth to heaven, In Jesus name. Amen”
