For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8: 38-39)

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever, Amen.

When we pray these words that Jesus taught us, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” we are praying for God to guard and protect us from the things of this world that could harm us or change us. But we are not only praying for ourselves. We are fervently praying that God would help each of us, and all of those people around us, to be safe from the things that would test our faith.

Because of a sad and tragic event in the life of a friend last week, I have experienced what it means to have my faith tested, to ask God questions like – how, in a world that you created, can you allow tragedy? Where are you in tragedy? And how will you protect me from tragedy happening in my life?

Maybe these are not rational questions to ask God, who after all, does not cause bad things to happen, and in fact, experienced the suffering that we experience in this world when he became flesh and lived with us for a time. But these are the thoughts that have been going through my mind in the last week.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

We are all children of God, created in God’s image, given the freedom to make whatever choices we are faced with in our lives. Part of our life-long education, and especially our Christian education, is teaching us about these choices, helping us to understand the difference between right and wrong (Martin Luther calls that LAW) and knowing that, being faced with all of the choices that we will encounter in our lives, sometimes we will make wrong choices in spite of our best intentions.

Sometimes we will succeed and sometimes we will fail. Because we live lives that are connected to other people in so many and various way, whatever we do has an impact of others – and whatever others do has an impact on us. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we are not just praying for ourselves. “We pray for each other, not wanting anyone to be tempted into the arms of evil or fall victims to those who have.” (French p 103)

But we are imperfect people living in an imperfect world, and so sometimes, no matter how fervently and earnestly and honestly we pray for deliverance from evil, evil may enter our lives. What I hope and pray for you and for me is that in the circumstances of sadness or hardship or illness or tragedy in my life and your life, your relationship and your communication with God remains fervent and earnest and honest.

We live in a time between the suffering of Jesus who took away our sins, and the perfection that he will one day bring into the world and into our lives. We live in a world where we have to trust in the power and in the love of God, but also in a world where evil exists.

And so, “when we pray to be saved from the time of trial, we pray that our faith would not be tested, but if it is, we pray that God would be with us throughout and beyond the trial.” (French p 113)

Finally, we come to the end of our petitions to God with the words, deliver us from evil.

“There is, in this petition, a hint of longing, the longing that things will finally come out right for the world God loves. There is a yearning for God to put things right, to replace human sorrow with joy, human tears with laughter, human fear with peace.” (French p 118)

In the meantime, we hope and we trust, and we continue to pray.