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.”

“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).

Hmmm.

Does that mean our being forgiven by God is contingent upon us forgiving those who have sinned against us?

Yup.

Really?

Yup.

Jesus says, in the next sentence, “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:13-15).

When God forgives us our sins, he tells us that he has removed the sin so far away from us that it is as if they had never happened. We are told, “As far as the East is from the West so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). God is able to forgive and forget.

But for us, when it comes to forgiving those who have sinned against us, it doesn’t quite work that way. We are commanded to forgive, but we have a very difficult time forgetting. The scars are there. Whenever someone touches the scar, we are reminded of the pain all over again.

So what do we do with that? How can we forgive when it’s difficult to forget? That’s a great question.

Don’t weaponize the memory.

What I mean by that is that when someone hurts us, the memory is stored in such a way that when they hurt us again, we bring that right back up to hurt them back.

When we forgive someone, we are refusing to weaponize such memories. We are refusing to use past memories to harm and damage another. We are choosing to let go of the power to use past memories as a weapon against another. That’s forgiveness.

The prayer we have been studying is known as the Lord’s Prayer. I said at the beginning of our study that this can’t be the Lord’s Prayer. It can’t be the Lord’s Prayer because Jesus could not have prayed this prayer. Jesus was sinless. This prayer is the prayer which Jesus taught his disciples to pray. This is the Disciple’s Prayer.

We pray this prayer – “Forgive us our debts” – because we are repeat sinners.

God has forgiven us of our sins. Not just today’s sins but all our sins. Because God has forgiven us, we have the audacity to pray, “Our Father,” for that’s who God is to those who have received Jesus as Lord and Savior. Our standing as children of God cannot ever be taken away. There is nothing that can change our standing before God as his children. Although our standing as God’s children cannot be taken away, the presence of sin damages our relationship with God.

There are times when my children do things that hurt me. But there is nothing they can ever do to change the fact that they are my children. So it is with God and us.

If God has forgiven us our sins why then do we keep praying, “Forgive us our debts”?

Because we are repeat sinners.

It’s like taking a shower or a bath. Why do we take a shower or bath when we’ve already showered or bathed? Because we keep getting dirty.

There is no shame in asking for forgiveness when we sin. It would be a crying shame when we don’t ask for forgiveness when we have been dirtied and tainted by sin. We will continue to wrestle with sin until the day we die. That we wrestle with sin, that we are bothered by sin, that we don’t like the presence of sin in our lives is a good thing. It would be terrible if we weren’t bothered by sin.

Father, forgive us our sins. We are repeat sinners in need of your forgiveness once again. Wash us anew and cleanse us from our sin.