The Lord’s Prayer. It is no mere side-note that Jesus includes this section in His “sermon on the mount.” The entire sermon is built around the essentials, the foundations of The Kingdom. We could outline it one way like this:

1 – 5:1-12 / The Citizens of the Kingdom – Blessed

2 – 5:13-16 / The Role of the Citizens of the Kingdom in this present age – Salt and Light

3 – 5:17-48 / The Character of the Kingdom and its Citizens – The Righteousness of God (not their own)

4 – 6:1-24 / The Life of Service in the Kingdom – Living unto the Father, not men

Alms / Fasting / Prayer / Treasure in Heaven

5 – 6:25-34 / The Sufficiency of the Kingdom – Delivered from the anxiety of this present age

6 – 7: 1-5 / The Humility of the Kingdom – Uncritically, Brother with brother

7 – 7:6 / The Otherness of the Kingdom – Preciousness and Contrariness

8 – 7:7-12 / The Privilege of the Kingdom – Access to the Father

9 – 7:13, 14 / The Entrance to the Kingdom – The Narrow Way & Gate – Christ

10 – 7:15-27 / The Integrity of the Kingdom – Doers and Hearers

Prayer then is an integral and necessary part of living the Christian life as unto God – while in the World. We are to be people of compassion regarding the needs of those around us (alms); seeking the Lord in our being burdened over sin’s destructive impact, and exercising the self-control of The Spirit (fasting); and bringing the whole of our hearts and minds into harmony with the purposes and plans of God – prayer.

And in fleshing out a fully orbed prayer life, we consider the greatest of cosmic needs – the restoration of the Father’s name and dignity; the desire for His rule and reign in Christ over all to be manifest; His will to be done as the sweetest of all possible outcomes; utter dependency upon Him; continual cleansing from the defilements of sin so as to maintain the closest, unimpeded fellowship with Him and others in our own forgiveness; and seeking to be led only in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

It is this last petition we consider today: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

While some have read this as a guard against the possibility that He might lead us into sin if we do not pray so – that is certainly not the thought here. We know this due to passages like James 1:13 “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.”

What then is this petition about? It is about mistrust of self. Of recognizing that we are weak, and that we stumble so easily into sin, that we need His constant watchfulness and deliverance, or we will be given over to our sins in a moment. For as Proverbs 21:2 reminds us – “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes.”

Even Believers tend to trust our own impulses and judgments. We seldom are very thoughtful in examining our own motives and perspectives. We tend to always give ourselves the benefit of the doubt. The benefit we tend to deny others.

Unfortunately, in present day American Evangelicalism, the “God wants you to achieve your dreams” mentality has crept in so that He has almost become an assistant to us, and not we His servants. If I have a dream, a desire, an aspiration, it is automatically baptized as good and right, and it is only fitting that God should help me get there. Whether or not that dream is best for me, more – best for His Kingdom, plans and purposes – seems at best, incidental. What it might have to do with conforming me to the image of Christ is not even considered.

But here, at the end of this majestic and glorious way of praying, Christ enjoins us to stop and consider our weaknesses, shortsightedness and sin-impacted reasoning. To submit all to Him that we might walk only in what is in perfect harmony with His own righteousness. To come again to the foot of the Cross, boasting in nothing but His mercy and grace, and recognizing the tendency so aptly put in the 3rd stanza of Come Thou Fount:

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it;

Prone to leave the God I love:

Take my heart, oh, take and seal it

With Thy Spirit from above.

Rescued thus from sin and danger,

Purchased by the Savior’s blood,

May I walk on earth a stranger,

As a son and heir of God.

For we are never more in tune with our God, than when we live in the reality of: “Nothing in my hands I bring; simply to thy cross I cling.”

O what a Savior!