"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."
In the book of James chapter 1, we are told bluntly that we should not believe that God tempts us with evil -temptation is, it tells us, a product of our own internal desires. I believe that this insight from James helps us to understand what Jesus is asking us to pray.
Jesus is not suggesting that God has plans to direct our paths into situations that we can't handle, where we will be overwhelmed by evil. I think He is suggesting something opposite. Jesus is saying that we need to submit and surrender our plans and thinking to God so that we won't be lured and tempted by our own wrong desires and then be overwhelmed by evil. We are asking God to directly intervene and mediate in those places where the devil would use our desires against us.
Lead me, Lord, away from my own best thinking which is susceptible to manipulation by the enemy, and set my heart, instead, on paths of righteousness. Amen.
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