The prayer which Jesus taught his disciples to pray is recorded for us in Matthew 6:9-13 and in Luke 11:2-4.

Matthew 6:9-13 – “This, then, is how you should 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 the evil one.”

Luke 11:2-4 – “He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgives us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.'”

Notice something missing?!?!

Where is “Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever”?

It’s not there?

Then where did we get this phrase?

The early church added the last clause to the end of the prayer.

Why did the early church do that?

The early church added the last clause because you can’t end a great prayer without a great doxology, a great praise. The early church didn’t add anything that Jesus wasn’t already teaching and preaching. They added the clause because a great prayer deserves a great ending. You can’t end it with “Deliver us from evil” or “Lead us not into temptation.” That just wouldn’t do.

Jewish prayers ended with praise and God’s glory. A good example of this is found in 1 Chronicles 29:10-11 which records David’s prayer toward the end of his life.

“Praise be to you, LORD, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.”

Or, in other words, “Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.”

Jews would have been familiar with this prayer and doxology.

Now, thanks to the early church, we have a fitting ending to a great prayer.

In the next three days, we will explore the meaning of “Kingdom, power, and glory.”

Jesus tells his disciples to pray, “Deliver us from evil,” to remind us that there is a war that is raging in our world. The war is not between nations but between God and forces that are waging war against all that God and his kingdom stands for.

There is no doubt about how this war ends: God wins, the kingdom of God wins, God’s will is established here on earth as it is heaven. But until that is the reality at the second coming of Jesus, there are forces at work to destroy everything God stands for.

The Greek actually says, “Deliver us from the evil one.”

It would be easy if the evil one was the guy in the red suit with a pitched fork. That guy would be easy to pick out. But the reality is that sometimes it’s the colleague who wants us to lie to our clients, it’s our friends who want us to join them in activities we know to be wrong, it’s popular culture that wants us to turn a blind eye to injustice and wrong. And, sometimes, it’s us. It’s us when we know what is right and good and we want to do the very opposite.

“Deliver us from the evil one.”

When we pray this we are asking God to deliver us from the evil that pulls us down, the evil that wants us to focus only on things on earth, the evil that wants to blind us to God’s goodness and his will.

We pray, “Deliver us from evil,” because we are powerless to deliver ourselves, not matter how hard we try. Only God can deliver us. Only God can save us. Only God can change us.

When disciples pray, “Deliver us from evil,” we are asking God to give us the wisdom to discern God’s will from the bad and to have the courage to change what needs to be changed. And, oftentimes, this prayer is asking God to change us. We are the ones who need to be reminded on a daily basis that God is at work in our world. Evil will meet God’s justice and righteousness. Evil will one day have to answer to God for its work.

Until that day, disciples pray, “Deliver us from evil,” so that we can join God in establishing God’s will here are on earth as it is in heaven.

Hmmm. Why would God do that? Why would God lead us into temptation? Why would we pray that God not lead us into temptation?

We are told in James 1:13, “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.”

If God doesn’t tempt us, what is the meaning of this prayer?

In James 1:2-4 we are told, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

The Greek word we translate as “tempt” is the same word for “trial” and “testing.” When we see this prayer as “Lead us not into a test or trial” it begins to make sense.

Although God never tempts us, God does test us. God tests us because testing makes us better people. That’s why we are to consider it all joy when we face trials and tests of many kinds. The trials and testing makes us mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Even so. Let’s say God does test us. Then why would we pray, “Lead us not into temptation/testing/trials”?

Perhaps what Jesus is really saying here is “Lead us not into more testing than we can handle.”

An airline pilot goes through rigorous training before they are ever allowed to pilot a plane with passengers on it. At first, they begin in the simulator with just basic flying. Then as the pilot gets more accustomed to flying the airplane, the testing gets more difficult and the trials more severe. Eventually, the pilot is trained to respond to catastrophic failures of equipment. Every pilot would fail their training if they started with catastrophic failures of equipment. You don’t start there. You build up to it.

So it is with us. “God, lead us not into more testing than we can handle. We do look forward to getting stronger and becoming a better people. You know best what we are able to handle. So we trust you.”

This is our prayer when we pray, “Lead us not into temptation.”