Matthew 6:9-15
The LORD's Prayer
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Genesis 3:1-5
Temptation in Eden
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
We first realize that temptation is all around us when we read about the evil one tempting Eve with the forbidden fruit in the middle of the Garden of Eden...Father lead us not into temptation...Long, long ago, and right square in the middle of Eden and Paradise, temptation was around...The evil one was lurking to tempt the very first man and woman...We cannot get away from temptation, and we must pray that we do not fall into temptation and into the way of the evil one...In the LORD's Prayer, Jesus tells us to pray: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one...
It seems that we cannot get away from temptation in this world, so let us be reminded of this...Jesus was even tempted alone in the desert by the evil one...Yet, we are not alone in resisting temptation, and that is why Jesus tells us to pray about being delivered from the evil one...God knows that temptation is all around us...So when we are tempted, let us pray and also think of the LORD's Prayer...