The Lord's Prayer - Ep 15

2026.08.3 Lord's Prayer Monday

Welcome to the Lord's Prayer Podcast by Bridgeway Christian Church. The Lord's Prayer has been recited by Christians around the globe for centuries. But more than a beloved tradition, this prayer invites us to live the way of Jesus, to be shaped by His priorities, to partner with His Spirit in bringing the Kingdom of God to bear on our world.

Every Monday during our summer devotional series, we will read the Lord's Prayer, and then members of our pastoral team will offer some devotional thoughts based on the text. I'm Pastor Heather, and today I'm joined by Pastor Anthony and Pastor Brian, and after I read the prayer, we'll discuss the line, lead us not into temptation. Let's pray.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Well, hello, gentlemen. Hello, Pastor Heather.

Are we ready to dive into temptation? We don't really want to. No, no, no, no. Let's start.

Let's really talk about this line, and lead us not into temptation is probably the most confusing one of the whole prayer, because it seems like it's implying that God tempts us. Let's start there. Is this true? Well, you know.

But to answer the question, it sure looks that way, doesn't it? The text seems to imply that God might lead us into temptation, and we need Him not to, and that's very confusing for a whole bunch of different reasons. First of all, for centuries, the word to tempt in English almost exclusively has a negative connotation. No one ever talks about being tempted to order the kale salad at lunch or being tempted to go to bed early.

That's not a thing, right? Not my thing. I'm reminded of a line from C.S. Lewis's book, The Screwtape Letters, which is a series of satirical letters from a quote-unquote senior demon to a junior demon, and the senior demon says, describing God, he can't tempt to virtue like we do to vice, implying temptation is kind of only something that can lead us in a negative direction. So second, if that's the case, it seems pretty odd that God, who is perfect in all of his ways, would want to tempt us, his creative... Second, it seems odd that God, who is perfect in all of his ways, would want to tempt us, his created beings.

To tempt someone is to try to entice them into failure, right? It makes no logical sense that a perfect being would want to lead us into sin. In fact, I would argue that any being that does that is no longer perfect because now you're trying to create problems for others. Third, the Bible directly says that God does not tempt us.

James 1 13 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. So what is going on here? It all comes down to the word that is translated temptation. In the Greek, that word is... Sorry to my Greek instructors, my Greek pronunciation, not great.

Pirasmos, and it can mean temptation, meaning to entice to sin, or it can mean testing. A test is very different than a temptation. A test doesn't entice us to sin, though I suppose if you try to cheat on the test it does, but a test reveals what is true.

And I actually think this is a really important point because it's easy to get kind of caught up with the idea that, oh, like maybe God is trying to lead me into something negative or, oh, if I'm not careful, like God has put this thing in my path, kind of hoping I'll trip on it to really see what's going on. And that's not true. That's not true.

A test, once again, very different than a temptation. Now we know that God does test. In Genesis 22, God tested Abraham and the test revealed Abraham's ultimate trust in Yahweh all the way back in the Garden of Eden.

God tested Adam and Eve by telling them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now, if you know the story, what's interesting is the serpent shows up and what does he do? He does not test, he tempts. Did God really say, oh, come on, just go ahead, eat of the tree, right? That is temptation.

That is not testing. And of course the results were disastrous. But it's really crucial for us to understand once again, God does not tempt us.

God is not rooting for us to fail. God is not placing roadblocks in our way to see if we stumble. If we are being tempted, we can be confident God is not the one doing the tempting.

In fact, the very next verse after the one I cited in James chapter one says, but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires. So the false for that does not lie with God. Yeah, that's really helpful, Brian.

I really liked too how N. T. Wright frames this line from the Lord's Prayer because that kind of really helped that section click for me. And he says that Jesus is teaching us to ask God not to bring us into the place where the testing becomes unbearable. Very similar to kind of how Jesus himself prayed, not my will, but yours.

Jesus is not saying here that God is behind every trial or temptation, but instead that God is sovereign over them. And because of that, it makes sense to ask him daily to help us to navigate the hard stuff so that it doesn't pull us away from him. And that's really helpful for me because it's more about me acknowledging how fragile I am and how much I really need God involved in all those possible things that are coming next.

Yeah, absolutely. And so, you know, the big idea here is we're asking God to spare us from testing because testing is difficult and unpleasant, and we don't have to pretend it isn't. But that if we must go through testing, right, we're asking him to keep us from the evil one.

So the question then is, what are some of the benefits of tests? If God is bringing tests into our lives, then what is he trying to accomplish? God can accomplish a lot through testing. Just because we are asking him to spare us from it does not mean it doesn't hold value or that could potentially be to our benefit. I think of, for example, 1 Peter talks about this idea, Do not be surprised, beloved, at the fiery trial when it comes upon you, as to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. That through testing, which Jesus, of course, faced in the desert, he faced in the garden of Gethsemane, through testing, we are sharing in Christ's sufferings. We are participating in his life with him.

And then there's also James chapter 1 verses 2 and 3, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of many kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Now, I've seen this verse used in some pretty unhelpful ways, trying to minimize the pain of suffering, and that's not the point.

The point of the verse is to recognize, even as we face these hardships, that God is working in it. I mean, I even think about some of the language from Romans 8, of God working things for good, that God can work through the challenges that we face to bring about steadfastness. I don't learn resilience when things are easy.

I don't learn steadfastness when everything is up and to the right. God teaches those things and shapes our character through the trials. And that doesn't mean we need to go like, yay, I don't have enough money.

Yay, I lost my job. Yay, my life is chaos. But rather, we can trust that God will redeem those things and work it out.

And on that note, I think trials are just an invitation to greater trust. I don't know about the two of you, but I find it much easier to sort of forget about my need for God when things are going great, that oftentimes those trials lead me to a place of trust. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

You know, the path to freedom demands honesty, and we're all bound by something on this side of eternity, on this side of the kingdom of God coming fully present with us. And testing is an uncomfortable road that leads us to an honest look at ourselves. It can reveal, it reveals our allegiances.

Where do our allegiances lie? And, you know, I think of the tempting, the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness by Satan. But that was also a test because it was allowed by God to take place, and it revealed Jesus' allegiance to the kingdom of God. He didn't surrender to Satan's seduction.

And the same thing applies for us. Testing can even reveal the vices we entertain, the lies we believe, and our sources of trust that prove unreliable. Now, if we remain in the dark about the truth of our lives, what's going on, how will we ever enjoy the light of freedom, right? Testing invites us to relinquish burdens that hinder, such as dependency on material things, or even a vision of life that forgets that Jesus is king.

And that's, so testing recalibrates and reorients our way of living in our world. If we're willing to follow our Good Shepherd through the deep, dark valleys, then we're reoriented and recalibrated toward the good. And I've, you know, I've never known a believer who's endured a season of testing, whether it's personally or through testimony, and we can even call this testing suffering.

I've never known a believer who's endured such a season and encountered the provision, the provision or deliverance of God in like really profound ways along the way, and later regretted the intimacy with God that was born out of that trial. And so there is so much benefits, even when we wish the pain would have been easier to bear, to manage, if the heartache, the betrayal, whatever it might have been, if we could have bypassed that. But there's still a benefit because we get to know God in a way we wouldn't have ever known otherwise.

That's true. That's true. So, when we inevitably face temptation, the question is, what are some strategies we can use to overcome it? Yeah, I think as much as the language of the prayer is more about testing than temptation, the fact of the matter is, I think we'd be remiss to go through this and not address that a little bit, because that's just a reality of modern life.

I think a few things come to mind. Number one, willpower is not enough. Willpower is a muscle, and it's a muscle that gets tired.

It's why, I don't know about you, I don't have a hard time avoiding salty snacks that are junk food, like first thing in the morning. I'm not like, man, get me some pretzels. But by 10 o'clock at night, my willpower has faded, right? And there are even some studies that show that a high view of our own willpower actually weakens our ability to resist temptation.

So, we think, well, I'm just gonna get through and not make bad decisions. That's not a great strategy. Also, another thing, we've talked about it a few times already, but I love the story of Jesus's testing or temptation in the desert.

And one of the things that Jesus was able to do there to resist temptation is he was able to see the thing behind the thing. It was not just about bread. It was not just about, oh, an angel's gonna catch you and all of that.

It was not just about power. It was about gaining those things on his terms and not trusting the Father. That when Satan was tempting him with these things, he wasn't, again, just trying to meet some need.

He was trying to help Jesus relocate the center of his trust from the Father onto him. And I think so often we need to be able to see that the thing behind the thing through the temptations in our own lives, that these surface level temptations actually aren't really about fill in the blank. They're about where we're looking for things like identity and pleasure and purpose.

And they can often reveal who or what we trust. So, we need to have that ability to see the thing behind the thing. I got two more.

And this one, I love this line. I don't remember where I heard it first, but it's really powerful to me. It says, recognize that our strongest desires are not our deepest desires.

We are often tempted to cater to our strongest desires. You think about any number of stories you see in the news of people making really terrible decisions. I think about fallen ministry leaders and other things where they make these terrible decisions that really devastate people.

I don't know these people personally. I'm not in their heads. But more often than not, they are catering to their strongest desire in a moment and neglecting their deepest desire.

Their deepest desire might be for a life of fruitful ministry. It might be for a healthy family life. It might be for maybe not being on the news for these things.

But then all of a sudden, their strong desire for something in a moment hijacks that. And we've got to be able to recognize our strong desires are loud and seemingly ever-present, but they don't line up with our deepest desires. My strong desire is to have this thing right now, but my deepest desire is to not be in debt.

I mean, you could apply this in a hundred different ways. And then last thing is community. We need to just have safe places where we can confess our temptations and struggles and receive prayer, encouragement, and accountability.

There's a reason why James calls us to confess our sins to each other. I love Andy Stanley's lines. Sins we confess only to God, we tend to repeat.

That on some level, we need places where we can be honest and know we're not going to be judged. We're not going to be condemned, but rather, all right, I have now shared, Pastor Anthony, this area of temptation or struggle with you. You're aware of it.

You can pray for me. You can ask me about it. And yes, confessing to God should be enough.

But for whatever reason, having to face you as a human is somehow like that can do something to me that just confessing to God can't. So I think there's really power in loving, grace-filled community that can help us resist temptation. Yeah.

I think too, for me, to the best of my ability, be aware of my weaknesses. It seems simple, but if I know where my areas of temptation are and I avoid them, it helps. It's kind of a silly example, but there was a season where I was really tempted towards materialism in my home.

I just wanted all the new things. I wanted the new furniture and the new decor, and I was feeding that temptation with magazines and going and looking at model homes, and it was not good for me. And I literally resisted the temptation by starving it.

I stopped the magazine subscription. I stopped going and looking at model homes, and what do you know? The desire for new furniture started to wane. So I just think being aware of our weaknesses and avoiding those areas, it can be a real tool to resist temptation.

Yeah. And to go along with that, we're aware of our weaknesses, but we can also be aware that when our defenses toward temptation are weak. You're saying, Pastor Brian, that willpower is a muscle that tires quickly.

There are times where we feel like, yes, I can resist anything right now in this moment. I had a good night of sleep or whatever it might be. But then we might find ourself weak, and that's what happened with Jesus.

Jesus was fasting in the wilderness, and that's when Satan came for the temptation, because he thought, okay, maybe I can tempt him in his weakness where he's most vulnerable. And so we can recognize that, okay, you know what? I'm probably vulnerable right now. So let me have a plan to have someone reinforce my ability to resist temptation.

I think that combination of having somebody there to reinforce, and certainly, you know, Pastor Heather, I can fully relate to that kind of starve the temptation idea. Wow. Amazing.

When I don't see 8 million ads for this thing, I don't need it anymore. I think that combination with God's help can be really powerful. Yeah, definitely.

Well, thanks for joining us. Don't forget to check out more resources in the show notes and join us on Thursday for prayer.