Praying Differently, Not Necessarily More
As we begin a new year and think about things we need to work on, a lot of us want to work on our relationship with God. If that’s you and you want to grow in your relationship with God, you have to grow in prayer. Growing Christians are praying Christians.
During the month of January, we’re studying the most famous prayer ever prayed: the Lord’s Prayer. This ancient prayer has taught believers how to pray for thousands of years.
In giving us this model prayer, Jesus’s goal isn’t that we repeat the words like a parrot. Rather, he wants to remake the way we pray in order to remake us. The Lord’s Prayer shows us that it’s not about praying more but about praying differently.
How Does Prayer Work?
What materials is prayer built out of? In the Lord’s prayer, we’ve seen that our prayers should be built out of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication (A.C.T.S.). The Lord’s prayer gives us the topics and emphases for our prayers. It stamps and shapes our prayers.1
Even in our petitions there’s an order that Jesus teaches us. He says that our petitions should begin with God. The first three petitions of the prayer are about God and the second three are about us. So we start with God’s praise then move to God’s priorities.
But then in verses 11-13, Jesus teaches us to pray for ourselves. He says that we should pray for our physical, relational, and spiritual needs, for provision, pardon, and protection.
We’re Weak, God is Strong
Today we’ll look at verse 13 and the third thing Jesus says we should pray for: spiritual protection. We’ll also consider the disputed ending of the prayer, or the doxology.
The main point of this verse is that we’re spiritually weak but God is strong. Verse 13 teaches us that prayer is for spiritual warfare and that in prayer we remember who wins the war. We’ll see first that we’re spiritually weak (v. 13a) and second that God is indisputably strong (v. 13b).
We’re Spiritually Weak
In verse 13, Jesus addresses a third need we have, namely, spiritual protection. This is right up there with physical and relational needs (vv. 11-12). The reason he tells us to pray for spiritual protection is because we’re spiritually weak.
A Three-Dimensional World
Many people view life’s difficulties from a purely naturalistic viewpoint, meaning that every problem has a natural explanation. For example, if we’re struggling to sleep, it’s merely a matter of something wrong in our bodies or brains. If our relationships are strained, it’s because we’re simply not communicating well enough. If nations go to war, it’s because the strong are taking advantage of the weak. If we’re sick, then we just need to take the right medicine.
These things may all be true. But this kind of worldview is limited in its ability to find answers to problems because it assumes that every problem is only physical or physiological in nature. The Christian worldview, however, is actually more liberal than this because it provides a wider range of options and categories to help us understand things.
The Christian view says that there are spiritual things at work in our lives, not just physical. The Bible says that our hearts are prone to want things that aren’t good for us and that we’re engaged in a wrestling match with evil spirits who hate God and us. Christians understand the world in three dimensions. This gives us more resources to deal with our difficulties.
I this clause of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us that there’s a spiritual realm, that there are things going on in and around us that are hard to see and easy to miss. And he therefore teaches us that we need to understand our spiritual weakness and vulnerability.
The Benefits of Temptation
As we look at the first clause of verse 13, “Lead us not into temptation,” it may seem like God is the one leading us into temptation if this prayer is directed toward him. But James says, “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” (1:13). God “tempts no one” so this phrase must mean something else.
The word for “temptation” means “trial” or “test” and is used in Matthew 4 to refer to when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness. If we take this word to mean “test” or “trial,” you could say that it’s not such a bad thing. We may even want to be led into it. You may be thinking, “Why would anyone want to be tested? How could trials be desirable?”
Think of every educational or training program you’ve ever been part of. They all have tests along the way, not to hinder your growth but to show you your growth. Tests are gauges of our progress. Taking them can be scary but also encouraging if we see them as an opportunity to see how far we’ve come.
The same applies in God’s program of education. God tests us regularly to show us what’s in us, to show us how far we’ve come and how far we still need to go. Physically and spiritually, with too much inactivity we can grow complacent and sluggish. So we need the furnace of testing to burn away impurities from our soul and to help us grow in self-knowledge, humility, durability, faith, and love.2 Tests are God’s way of graciously showing us where we’re at.
But if tests are beneficial, why does Jesus instruct us to pray that we wouldn’t be led into them? Why does Jesus tell us to pray to avoid something that could be good for us? Because we’re spiritually weak. Our sinful flesh and our evil enemy will often work against us when trials come and take us back instead of forward. Jesus is saying that, though trials may be good for us, we shouldn’t go looking for them. As J. I. Packer says, “Temptation may be our lot, but only a fool will make it his preference.”3
Entering into Temptation
There may be some benefits to temptation and testing, but Jesus knows we’re spiritually weak so he tells us to pray to be led away from them. But he’s also telling us to pray for something more specific than just being led away from testing.
Concerning this clause, “Lead us not into temptation,” Augustine points out an important qualification. He says, “The prayer is not that we should not be tempted, but that we should not be brought (or led) into temptation.”4 This is what Jesus says to his disciples when he’s praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Mt. 26:41).
The idea is that temptation will come but that doesn’t mean we have to enter into it. When it comes, we don’t have to entertain it. Being tempted isn’t wrong. It’s part of life. What you do with it is what matters. What are main areas of temptation for you? What do you do when those temptations come?
Temptation is everywhere and can come out of nowhere. John Calvin says there are two categories of temptations that can come from the “right” or the “left.” He says:
“From the right are, for example, riches, power, honors, which often dull men’s keenness of sight by the glitter and seeming goodness they display, and allure with their blandishments, so that, captivated by such tricks and drunk with such sweetness, men forget their God. From the left are, for example, poverty, disgrace, contempt, afflictions, and the like. Thwarted by the hardship and difficulty of these, they become despondent in mind, cast away assurance and hope, and are at last completely estranged from God.”5
Both prosperity and adversity bring temptations unique to each. It’s not the prosperity or adversity itself that’s the temptation, but what it starts to do in our heart. What are you more prone to be tempted by: prosperity or adversity?
The basic gist of this request in verse 13 is that we understand our spiritual vulnerability. Jesus wants us to pray this way because he knows we’re spiritually weak.
“Deliver Us from Evil”
The next phrase in verse 13, “deliver us from evil,” continues the same theme as the first. Jesus is still teaching us about our need for spiritual protection. “Evil” can be translated “evil one,” or be referring to Satan. Jesus’ “testing” or “tempting” came at the hands of Satan in the wilderness, so we should expect no less. He’ll come after us to.
Later in the New Testament, Paul says it this way, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Because of this he says we’re to “stand against the schemes of the devil” (Eph. 6:10-11).
Unlike modern secular people who think of life as purely a result of physical processes, Paul says there’s much more happening behind the scenes. He says the Christian’s life is one of “standing against” the devil and “wrestling” against the spiritual forces of evil.
A Spiritual Wrestling Match
In a classic book on spiritual warfare titled The Christian in Complete Armour, Puritan writer William Gurnall says that whether you like it or not you have to get in the ring with Satan. He points out that wrestling is different than other sports because it involves a single combat. It’s not a team sport but a one-on-one contest. He says:
“Whether you like it or not, you must go into the ring with Satan. He has not only a general malice against the army of saints, but a particular spite against every single child of God. As our Lord delights to have private communion with His saint, so the devil delights to challenge the Christian when he gets him alone…You give Satan a dangerous advantage if you see his wrath and fury bent in general against the saints, and not against you specifically: Satan hates me; Satan accuses me; Satan tempts me. Conversely, you lose much comfort when you fail to see the promises and providences of God as available for your own specific needs: God loves me; God pardons me; God takes care of me. The water supply for the town will do you no personal good unless you have a pipe that carries it to your own house. Let it serve as both a caution and a comfort to know your spiritual combat is singular.”6
For the follower of Jesus, life is war. You can ignore it, be lulled to sleep in it, or distract yourself from it but you can’t escape it. In the ring with the evil one is the place we find ourselves.
Wrestling with evil is actually good news because it means you have a new nature that wants to fight. You don’t want to roll over. You’re not resigned to live however you want. You have a new King and a new nature and you’re not going to lay down in the face of evil. Take heart, wrestling with evil means you belong to Jesus.
And if we belong to him we know the fight won’t last forever. We know that we’ll exit the ring victorious one day. We know that there’s a promised rest for the people of God. So we keep fighting and wrestling until our Champion returns and defeats Satan with a single word.
That’s the day we long for. As Gurnall says, “What tongue can express the joy that will flood the creature at the first sight of God and his eternal home? If we knew more of that future blissful state, we would worry less about our present conflict.”7
A Spiritual Minefield
Jesus tells us to pray for deliverance from evil because our lives are like a spiritual minefield. And he tells us to pray for deliverance because we can be delivered. Our Father in heaven is able to deliver us and wants to deliver us.
But as long as we assume there’s no fight or are oblivious to it, we’ll never pray this way. Until we recognize the fight and our vulnerability in it, we won’t pray this and mean it. Sinclair Ferguson says it this way, “The Christian who does not know his weakness can, therefore, neither pray this prayer nor experience God’s strength. The Christian who knows his weakness, but is a praying Christian, will be garrisoned by the Lord’s strength.”8
If there were no such thing as personal evil who hates us, why would Jesus have us pray this way? If we can wrestle our way out of the ring on our own, why would Jesus have us pray this way?
Jesus teaches us to pray these things because he knows we can’t face them on our own. We won’t and can’t avoid temptation or evil, so we budget for it and don’t do anything to open the door for it. When it comes, God can keep us from stumbling (Jude 24) and give us a way of escape (1 Cor. 10:13).
When we’re not being tempted, we pray, “Lead me not into temptation.” When we are being tempted, we pray, “Deliver us from evil.” Jesus knows we’re spiritually weak, that we need protection from temptation and protection in temptation, so he offers us his strength in this prayer.
God is Indisputably Strong
We’ve seen that we’re spiritually weak but let’s close by seeing in the last part of verse 13 that God is indisputably strong. Prayer is for spiritual warfare and in prayer we remember who wins the war: “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.”
This last part of the prayer may not be in the text of your Bible, but rather in a footnote. That’s because some of the earliest and best manuscripts of the Greek New Testament don’t contain it. There are some who believe it was part of the original prayer, but regardless of whether it was or wasn’t, it certainly reflects the emphasis of the whole Bible, namely, that all power and glory properly belong to God alone.
With this doxology, this prayer ends where it began, with praise to God. After we descend into our troubles and needs and deficiencies, we’re brought up again to the heights of God’s glory. After acknowledging our limitations we remember God’s sufficiency.
As I said a few weeks ago, prayer begins and ends with God. We pray to “Our Father in heaven” at the start, that God’s will would be done “as it is in heaven” in the middle, and at the end we remember his power and glory. Prayer should be saturated with praise to God. Are your prayers God-saturated or more like mundane shopping lists?
The conjunction “for” links this doxology to the petitions before it. This means we can ask our heavenly Father for provision, pardon, and protection with confidence because we know he has both the capacity and the character to give these things to his children.
As God, he has the ability to provide anything we ask. And because he’s a Father, he wants to provide. The prayer goes like this, “Father, I look to you to provide what I need because you’re great and you’re good.”
This closing doxology isn’t a formality, but a closing statement of faith in who God is, a confession that God is unlike us, that he’s different in kind not just degree, that he’s the omnipotent Creator and we’re needy creatures.
Some songs are meant to be turned up, so when you pray this doxology you turn up the zeal in your heart for the glory of God. This doxology is an anthem of praise to the one true and living God.
Then when we’re done praying, we say, “Amen.” This isn’t a throwaway religious word. It’s based on a word that means “true, solid, certain.” It was said by the Jews to mean, “so shall it be.” So when we say “amen” from our hearts and not just with our lips, we’re affirming the things we’ve said and professing belief in the things we’ve prayed for.
We Go After God Together
This is why it’s good and right to say “amen” in church when someone is preaching or praying. It’s our way of saying, “may it be so” with me and us. And this brings me to one final observation from the Lord’s Prayer.
Let’s go back through the prayer and notice a few words. The prayer is directed to “our” Father and requests are made for “our” daily bread and “our” debts and “our” debtors. We ask God to give “us” daily bread, forgive “us,” lead “us,” and deliver “us.” Do you see the collective nature of this prayer?
Jesus gives the Lord’s Prayer in plural form. This means that prayer isn’t strictly private. It means that followers of Jesus are coming to God in prayer together.
This was the pattern of the early church and one reason we put so much emphasis on prayer in our worship services. Prayer is for the church, not just individual Christians, for the army, not just the soldiers.
But why would Jesus want us praying together? One reason is because we get to know God better together. In his book The Four Loves, C. S. Lewis says that it takes a community to truly get to know an individual person. Some aspects of our personality are brought out by certain friends while other aspects are brought out by other friends. For example, most of you may not know that I love playing sports and can get really fired up during a game of ping-pong. Suzy knows that about me, but most people wouldn’t.
If it takes a community to know a human being, how much more so an infinite God? When we pray with our spouse or friends or as a church, we notice things about Jesus that we may’ve missed. Praying with others reminds and teaches us things about the Lord. We know God better together. Do you see the necessity and beauty of following Jesus with other followers of Jesus?
We’re Weak but Jesus is Strong
We’re spiritually weak but God is strong. Prayer is for spiritual warfare and in prayer we remember who wins the war. As we together pray prayers built out of the materials of the Lord’s Prayer, our eyes are opened to aspects of him we may’ve missed.
Are your prayers saturated with God? Do you understand your spiritual weakness and vulnerability? Jesus didn’t die for us because we’re strong but because we’re weak. In this prayer, he offers us his strength. Do you want it? Do you need it? You can have it if you see your need for it.