Blog Archive

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Deliver Us From Evil

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil.
~ Matthew 6:13 (LITV)

All kinds of trials come your way ... know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure... If we are tempted by such trials, we must not say, "This temptation comes from God." For God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. But we are tempted when we are drawn away and trapped by our own evil desires.
~ James 1:2-3,13-14 (GNB)

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
~ Ephesians 6:11-12 (NKJV)


Do Not Lead Us Into Temptation
The words translated tempt, trial and test in the New Testament all come from the same Greek root word, peira, which means to pierce—by which one determines what's on the inside. When the devil tempts us, God allows it in order to test, or try us, and thereby refine (purify) us. When testing comes with which the devil means to tempt us, we pray for our Father to lead us not into it, but around it or through it, and beyond it, making us more holy in the process.

The Greek word for evil, poneros, could refer to "the evil," or "the evil one." I pray it both ways.

But Deliver Us From the Evil [one]
We look to the Holy Spirit as a divine Valet who presents our armor with which to defeat the enemy:
We are girded, held together, with truth, which sets us free from all the enemy's power;
We are clothed with righteous acts;
We have secure footing because we prepare ourselves with the Gospel, a solid rock on which to stand;
We ask for ever increasing faith, by which we are shielded from the enemy's lies and doubt;
Our head covering is the Lordship of Jesus Christ, which is our mark of salvation, ownership, and spiritual authority;
We are trained to wield the Sword of the Spirit, our offensive weapon of God's Word with which we've prepared;
We remain watchful in prayer, which is our continual dependence upon God's power to wage war.

Deliver Us From All Evil
We need deliverance from past evil—our sins, our inheritance of sin, and sins committed against us; from present evil—the pride and lusts of Self, divisions with other believers, unity with the world; from future evil—kept from it, that we may not cause pain to others, ourselves, or our Owner.

YHWH of Hosts, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, and from all evil.

Feedback invited. Post to BuildingHisBody.com "Comments" or e-mail to BuildingHisBody@gmail.com. Copyright 2009, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.

9 comments:

  1. Putting on the whole armor of God has been foremost on my mind this past month. I won a Joyce Myers DVD series from fellow blogger Janette Leville. The theme was Power and Authority and the crux of it was concerning putting on the whole armor of God. I had read it and glossed over it many times in text, heard it preached in church but never to the point of realizing I was actually naked without it. The Lord provides it free of charge, we have to mentally put this on, it does not just jump onto us. I've been consciously going over the armor in my prayers and with my children. Great post! Anne, tell us about the novel's you write. Fiction or nonfiction?

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  2. T. Anne, you are quite correct in observing that we need to actively clothe ourselves with our armor or risk being found naked and unprotected. That's why I use the metaphor for the Holy Spirit of divine Valet. He offers to help us into our armor. We must choose to put it on and let Him train us with it.

    In addition to writing this blog and occasional messages for public presentation, I write biblical fiction which incorporates well-researched factual elements. I've ministered to numerous women over the years in various capacities, and also incorporate non-feminist spiritual solutions for the hurts specific to women.

    In addition to portraying God's power of healing through love and faith, my ambition is to stimulate greater interest in the Bible, and ultimately, inspire devotion to God enhanced by deeper understanding of His Word.

    The hook I'm toying with at the moment is: "When escape is not an option, faith is not enough."

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  3. Anne, your hook is wonderful. That's a fascinating topic. I know too many women who are trying to honor God and deal with various levels of abusive relationships.

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  4. Anne, what a great piece today, and personally timely for me also. Thank you. I agree with T. Anne, your hook is fascinating! I'm wondering how you plan to get out of THAT one.

    Happy Mother's Day :-)

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  5. Sweetie, I am the little girl pouting in the picture, lol

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  6. We'll see how the publishing pros feel about the hook. Amy, see 1 Corinthians 13:13 for my out.

    Fight well, warriors!

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  7. although i spent most of yesterday going thru Jonah 2 and am in it quite deep with the help of Matthew Henry's commentary and his many Bible references, i've also been going thru your Evil archive. this post especially! i loved the scripture links and once again did the read M Henry's commentaries. it's all tied together. anyways, i'm a bit hemmed in between the Jonah study, this study of evil, and the house group's lengthy study of deliverance. i wish the book we're studying had more scripture in it. but the bright side of it is that it involves more time in prayer. been thinking about Jonah's prayer for deliverance as well as Jabez's prayer.(I Chronicles 4:10)

    there's a lot to absorb and chew on here. of course you gotta know that i couldn't possibly ignore your scripture above (I Cor. 13:13) in relationship to your hook:

    "When escape is not an option, faith is not enough."

    i thought i read somewhere recently that you didn't care much for fishing. could of fooled me by the way you bait and set the hook.

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  8. Bud, you crack me up! I'd never thought about the connection between a hook and fishing. (How dense is that?) No, I don't care for fishing. Except during morning prayer time, I'm not likely to sit still long enough to catch anything. But since we're talking about Jonah, I'm sure that I really am trying to entail you in some fishing. ; )

    I like Matthew Henry. And as much as I push Bible reading and fellowship with Christians, I'd never want to minimize that third pillar of support in Christian life: prayer. You're only stable when you keep all three. You can balance on two, but it gets tiring. Standing on just one, it's only a matter of time before you collapse.

    [PS ~ The hook for my novel wound up being: "Escape is not an option. Faith is not enough." You wouldn't believe how prophetic that line has turned out to be! Well, maybe you would.]

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