Lord Protect Us
Trials, Temptation, and the Power of Drawing Near to God
There is a line tucked inside one of the most familiar prayers in all of Scripture that does not get nearly the attention it deserves. Most people can recite it from memory, yet its depth is easy to rush past: "And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Found in Matthew 6:13, this phrase is not a throwaway closing line. It is a profound, emotionally honest cry from the heart of a believer who understands what it means to live in a world full of trials, and who knows that the only safe place to stand is close to God.
To understand what this line is really saying, we have to start with a word that gets lost in translation.
The Word We Think We Know
In English, the word "temptation" carries an almost exclusively negative meaning. We associate it with sin, with weakness, with giving in. But the Greek word used here is broader than that. It can also be translated as "trial" or "testing" — and in that sense, it is entirely neutral. A trial is simply a proving ground. It can reveal the strength of your character just as easily as it can expose your weakness.
God allows trials. Scripture is clear about this. James 1:2-4 reminds us to consider it pure joy when we face trials of many kinds, because the testing of our faith produces perseverance. Job endured suffering that stripped away everything he had, not because he was wicked, but because God was revealing something about his character — and in doing so, left a testimony that has encouraged countless millions of believers across thousands of years.
So the prayer in Matthew 6:13 is not asking God to shield us from every difficult thing. It is asking something far more specific and far more honest: "Lord, if a trial must come, do not let the evil one win. Deliver me from falling."
God Does Not Tempt Anyone
Before going further, one thing must be made absolutely clear, because confusion on this point causes enormous damage. God does not tempt anyone toward evil. James 1:13-14 states it plainly — God cannot be tempted by evil, and He does not tempt anyone. When a person falls into sin, it is not because God led them there. It is because they were carried away by their own desires.
This matters because far too many people, when they find themselves deep in sin, look for someone else to blame. They blame their circumstances. They blame other people. They blame Satan. And while Satan is a real adversary who does attack believers, giving him godlike qualities is a mistake. Satan is not omnipresent. He can only be in one place at one time. God is everywhere. When we fall, it is most often because we ignored roadblock after roadblock that God placed in our path and kept walking toward the very thing that would destroy us.
God is faithful. He always provides a way out. The question is whether we take it.
Joseph Ran the Other Way
One of the most vivid illustrations of this truth comes from the life of Joseph. When Potiphar's wife threw herself at him, Joseph did not linger. He did not try to see how close he could get to the line without crossing it. He ran — and ran so fast that his cloak was torn from his body. He wanted nothing to do with that temptation.
And what happened? He was thrown into prison anyway. He did the right thing and suffered for it. This is one of the hardest realities of the Christian life. Faithfulness does not always produce immediate reward. Joseph spent years in a prison he did not deserve. But God was positioning him. Every injustice, every betrayal, every trial was being woven into a story that would ultimately save an entire nation — and preserve the line through which the Messiah would one day come.
Joseph said it best in Genesis 50:20: "You meant this for evil, but God meant it for good." The trial was real. The suffering was real. But so was the redemption.
How to Actually Resist the Enemy
Here is where many well-meaning believers go wrong. There is a popular idea in some church circles that resisting Satan means confronting him loudly and dramatically — rebuking him by name, declaring spiritual authority, making a great show of spiritual warfare. But this is not what Scripture teaches.
James 4:7-8 gives us the actual strategy, and it is disarmingly simple: "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you."
Notice the order. You do not resist the devil by standing in your own strength and making declarations. You resist the devil by drawing near to God. Humility before God is the weapon. When the enemy comes, the response is not pride — it is surrender to the Lord. And when you draw near to God, He draws near to you, and the enemy flees.
This is confirmed in the book of Jude, where even the archangel Michael, leading the armies of heaven, did not stand in his own authority when confronting Satan. He simply said, "The Lord rebuke you." The power was never his own. It was always God's.
The Promise Underneath the Prayer
Jesus Himself prayed something remarkably similar to Matthew 6:13 in John 17:15 — "I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one." He was not asking for an easy road for His followers. He was asking for protection on the road they would have to walk.
That is the heart of this petition in the disciples' prayer. It is not a prayer for comfort. It is a prayer for faithfulness. It is the cry of someone who knows their own weakness, who has seen what sin produces, and who desperately wants to honor God through whatever comes next.
There is an old saying that carries more truth than it might first appear: the Word of God will keep you from sin, and sin will keep you from the Word of God. The deeper you go into Scripture, the less appetite you have for the things that once pulled you away. And the further you drift from Scripture, the easier it becomes to justify the drift.
Draw near to God. He will draw near to you. And in that nearness, there is victory.
The sermon distinguishes between the 'Disciples' Prayer' as an outline for how to pray rather than a rote recitation — how does understanding prayer as a framework rather than a formula change the way you approach your own prayer life?
The pastor describes two condemned forms of prayer: the self-centered prayer of the Pharisees and the mindless babbling of pagans — in what ways might modern Christians unconsciously fall into one of these patterns without realizing it?
James 1 makes clear that God does not tempt anyone toward evil, and that we are carried away by our own lusts — how does honestly accepting personal responsibility for sin, rather than attributing it to Satan or circumstances, change the way you pursue holiness?
The sermon uses Job as an example of someone who maintained faithfulness through trials he did not cause or deserve — what does Job's response of 'blessed be the name of the Lord' reveal about the relationship between suffering and spiritual character?
Joseph's story illustrates that doing the right thing can still result in painful consequences, yet God used those trials for a purpose far greater than Joseph could see — how does this challenge or encourage your own perspective when obedience seems to go unrewarded?
The pastor argues that drawing near to God, rather than boldly rebuking Satan in one's own strength, is the biblical response to spiritual attack — how does the example of Michael in Jude reshape your understanding of spiritual humility and where true power comes from?
Romans 6 teaches that believers are no longer slaves to sin but have been freed through Christ's death and resurrection — in what practical ways does a person live as though that freedom is real, rather than continuing to yield to patterns of the old self?
The sermon states that the Holy Spirit already dwells within every believer, meaning God is always present and aware of every action and thought — how should the reality of God's constant presence within you shape the everyday decisions you make?
The pastor draws a sharp contrast between pleasing God and pleasing self or the world, citing James 4's warning that friendship with the world is hostility toward God — where do you find the greatest tension between these two loyalties in your own life?
The closing statement — 'The Word of God will keep you from sin, and sin will keep you from the Word of God' — presents a cycle that can move in either direction — what habits or disciplines help you stay in the Word, and what tends to pull you away from it?