I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:1-4 KJV
‘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 today 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. ”
Matthew 6:9-13 NIVUK
Prayer is also rooted in WHAT WE FACE.
‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’
Matthew 11:28-30 NIVUK
The first time I went to Romania, I didn't pack light. I was new to foreign travel. I didn't know what to take. I arrived with a huge, heavy backpack on my back and a smaller backpack strapped to my chest. I didn't really need many of the things I'd brought.
I soon learned my lesson. I didn't repeat that mistake. And certainly not in a country where summer temperatures can top forty degrees Celsius.
Except once: when we were moving our things from the Philippines to Scotland. I remember us arriving in at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila with almost more luggage than we could carry. No way we would be under the weight limit.
And we weren't. Our combined weight limit was forty kilograms. We had sixty kilograms of luggage. Way too much. And not a lot of money to pay for the excess luggage charges.
My wife explained our situation and pleaded with the check-in clerk. She negotiated our bill down to the equivalent of just five kilograms.
We paid it in cash, checked our bags in, grabbed our hand luggage and began to head away, when we heard angry yelling from the check-in counter. A British man was ten kilos over the limit - half what we had been - and he had slapped his credit card down frustratedly in front of the check-in clerk. The check-in clerk didn't have a credit card machine, so he called up the airline's office on his walkie-talkie and proceeded to read the man's credit card details out, loudly, over the airwaves.
The British man did not like that at all.
It's never fun to carry a lot of baggage with you. And, believe me, being married to an ex pat Filipina and often travelling through places where there are ex pat Filipinos, I have seen people arriving at the airport with all kinds of things: karaoke sets, microwave ovens, stereos, TVs...
But at least they have the sense to check them in. At least, for most of their journey, their luggage is carried by one of the great marvels of modern engineering.
Many Christians are not quite so clever. We have a Saviour who is the marvel of the whole world. He is the Mighty God. He encourages us to lay our heavy burdens down at His feet and take His, much lighter, burden, instead. But we don't do it.
We even carry around the burdens mentioned in the Lord's Prayer.
Food: Do we not recognise these words?
‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
Matthew 6:25-27 NIVUK
There are two types of people in this world: those who worry about food because they want it but don't have it, and those who worry about food because they have it and don't know what they want.
I've been in both camps. Or I would have been, if my parents hadn't gone hungry sometimes so we could eat, or been 'creative' and turned leftovers into soup.
Those who worry about things like food do their best to provide for themselves, and work incredibly hard for it. However, unless God blesses the increase and guides us away from unnecessary purchases and drains on our income, this is true of us:
Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.’
Haggai 1:5-6 NIVUK
All of us at some point in time will have to work hard to provide for our families. It's normal. But the burden of worry over this is not something we were meant to carry. Bring it to Jesus in prayer. Lay it down. Work hard, but trust Him to provide. That will make all the difference.
Forgiveness: We read these words:
If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.
Psalms 130:3-4 NIVUK
He will not always accuse, nor will he harbour his anger for ever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
Psalms 103:9-12 NIVUK
If you have done wrong, if you have crossed the line, if you have sinned and you need forgiveness, and the burden of your sin weighs deeply on your shoulders, then take heed of these words: God forgives you, if you trust in Him. He forgives you because Jesus Christ bore your sins in your behalf on the cross:
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
Isaiah 53:5 NIVUK
And on this basis, your sins are forgiven.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9 NIVUK
But this forgiveness is not easy forgiveness. It's not the kind of forgiveness you take advantage of so that you can have a great time doing everything God told you not to do.That is not loving forgiveness. That is licence. God has never and will never give anyone a free pass to sin.
For this forgiveness to really take effect in your life, it must have three actions. It has to lead to cleansing, as John states above. Your life, your attitudes, your thinking must all change. God accepts you as you are and forgives you as you are, but He loves you too much to leave you that way.
It must also lead to repentance. You must turn away from the very thing that caused you to need to be forgiven, as the women caught in adultery was told to do by Jesus (John 8:11).
It must also lead you to forgive other people who have wronged you (Matthew 18:21-35). Jesus is incredibly and uncompromisingly direct about this:
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 6:14-15 NIVUK
This doesn't mean letting people off with committing dangerous crimes. Do not be misled: if someone has hurt you and not faced justice then they should, otherwise they could be a danger for others. You can forgive someone and still give evidence against them in court to prevent them from hurting other people.
But what it does mean is that you do not carry round with you a huge, bitter burden of unforgiveness. That is a burden no-one is strong enough to carry.
Freedom from trials and temptations:
I find these words particularly important when it comes to temptations and trials:
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
1 Corinthians 10:13 NIVUK
We need to understand what this really means. James is particularly clear on this in his letter: we are not tempted by God; the temptation comes from within:
When tempted, no-one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
James 1:13-15 NIVUK
That might sound hopelessly bleak, but taken together the verses in 1 Corinthians and James have much to tell us about temptation and trials and how we can defeat them.
We must recognise, firstly, that temptation is not linked to our situation. Our situation is external, but temptation is deeply internal. It happens in our head.
Let me give you a good example. I have never drunk alcohol. I don't even have the desire to do so. If I go into a restaurant or a bar, I'm not curious. I just order a soft drink. I don't care what other people think. I will not give into peer pressure. I don't drink alcohol and that's it.
Take a recovering alcoholic into a bar, though, and that's a different matter. They will be tempted to drink, and potentially get very drunk.
Two people in the same situation: an avowed tea-totaller and a recovering alcoholic. Same place. Same situation. One tempted. One not.
So temptation does not come because of our situation. Temptation is a reaction to our situation.
In other words, we tempt ourselves.
So we can choose to un-tempt ourselves. We can choose not to be tempted.
Secondly, temptation is not linked to failure. We do not have to give in. We can choose not to fail.We can be, in Jesus' words, 'delivered from evil'. In Paul's words, we can 'find a way out so we can endure it'.
So what does that mean?
God can give us a way out. In fact, He has already given us a way out: Jesus.
Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Hebrews 2:18 NIVUK
In 1988, Martin Scorsese's film 'The Last Temptation of Christ' scandalised Christians across the globe. The reason why was because Scorsese pictured Jesus as being tempted, while hanging on the cross, with visions of an ordinary life, married to Mary Magdalene. The very idea that Jesus could be tempted on the cross was something that disgusted believers.
And I don't blame them. Scorsese went too far.
But he did get one thing right. Jesus was tempted. The Gospels all agree with that. And, in the strictest sense of the word, the cross itself was a temptation, because in ancient Greek the word for 'temptation' also means 'test' or 'trial'.
The fact of His temptation isn't blasphemous or sacriligious. It ought instead to be a huge encouragement to us. Jesus was tested, tempted and tried like us. He knows how it feels.
And that's why He gives us hope of an exit from it, and the strength to endure it.
When you are tempted and tried, remember the special truth of our verse in 1 Corinthians: it will not last forever. There is always a way out. You will find it in Jesus.
Thirdly, temptation is not linked to isolation. We are not alone. You are not alone. Other people are being tempted and tested just like you.
Because temptation is internal to us, we become convinced that we are alone - that our experience is unique and that no-one else struggles like us. This makes the temptation stronger and harder to endure. We feel isolated. We feel exposed. And so we are more likely to give up and give in.
The truth in 1 Corinthians 10 is the antidote to this poison. It is a reminder that other people are tempted in the same way, that we are not uniquely weak, vulnerable or bad, that we are not alone. Hebrews 2:18 tells us of Someone who faced temptation like us, understands our every weakness and did not give in...
Jesus Christ.
And that gives us hope that we can overcome.
The Lord's Prayer is that the Lord will not lead us to temptation - which He won't - or to testing. But He just might do the latter. He did it to Job (Job 1 and 2). He did it to Jesus. And the Bible is clear that He can and does do it to us:
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Psalms 23:4 NIVUK
Why does He do it when we've asked Him not to?
Because there is no other way to achieve His Good Will for us. Because the strength and faith we will gain and the lessons we will learn require it. He doesn't do so willingly (Lamentations 3:33), but He does it because it must be done.
This is why we pray this prayer. In essense, it says 'Don't lead us into testing or temptation but save us from it.' In other words, don't put us in this situation, but when we are in it, get us out of it'.
The beauty of the Lord's Prayer is twofold. If we are facing tempations and trials, it's a constant reminder that giving in is not ineviteble, that there is a way out if we are willing to accept God's strengthening to bear under and bear through it. But it is also a constant reminder that we are not alone: 'Lead US not into temptation but deliver US from evil'. It is a reminder that our situation is not unique - others are being tempted and tested like us.
And when we pray the Lord's Prayer, we identify with the tempted and the tested and pray for their deliverance.
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