This is a question sent in by Anonymous on the “Ask Aaron Anything” link:
I have a question that’s been on my mind for some time now….I’ve posed this question to a couple of other people, but no one can really seem to answer. I don’t want to get all hung up on this, but it’s just nagging away at me. As you mentioned last Sunday, the book of James tells us that God cannot be tempted, nor will he tempt us. So…..why does the Lord’s prayer say “lead us not into temptation”?
My Answer:
This is a cool question and interesting to think about. I think my best answer is if we are to be led by the Lord that He will lead us into times of temptation. If you look at the life of Job he was being led by God and God led Him into a time of temptation from the Devil. Same with Jesus (Matthew 4:1) He was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the Devil. The Devil does the tempting but God is the one leading us… if we are following God by His spirit then we will be lead into times where we are being tempted by the devil. What we have to recognize is that if God led us in that He will lead us out. He will never allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear (1Co 10:13).
So in our prayer life we are asking that he not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. Temptation, although a part of life and following God, should not be something we pray for but pray against. We should, through prayer, be preparing our hearts to rely on God and His strength to take us around temptation and and deliver us through temptation.
I would love to hear peoples insight and thoughts on this question so if you have any extra thoughts, please, make a comment.
excellent point!
u know ive been in church my whole life & never even thought about this … wow … great question
Hey BoBo!
Had lost this site and glad to see you are weighting in on the blog scene. You asked me some questions last year that I neglected to follow up on. that is a character issue so please forgive and I will attempt to get this flaw turned around. Life has been coming fast and furious while I was navigating through the “temtational”moments as I embraced the test while resisting the devil. SHOUT!
RGH
DR,
I forgive you for that character flaw considering the lord’s prayer also teaches us to forgive our debtors. I love your blog spot! He all if you click on richard hanners name it will take you to a great blog. Bless u DR Hanner!