Category: Temptation

Prayer:Backwards

Luke 11:1-4 (NKJV)
1 Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” 2 So He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins,
For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.”

A thought hit me the other night as Dawn and I were reading this passage.  We were reading it from the New Living Translation and it appears a little differently:

Luke 11:1-4 (NLT)
1 Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of his disciples came to him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
2 Jesus said, “This is how you should pray:
“Father, may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
3  Give us each day the food we need,
4  and forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation.”

It appeared to me that Jesus’ prayer was a sort of stack rank on the things he felt were the most important.

  1. The Holiness of God
  2. God’s Kingdom on earth
  3. God’s provision on earth
  4. Forgiveness – both our own forgiveness and our forgiving others
  5. Steering clear of temptation

If this is the order in which Jesus ranked them, then shouldn’t the items at the top of my list be the most important and garner the bulk of my time, attention and energy?  Why do we have it all backwards?

How much more time do I spend focused on the bottom of this list that I do on the top of the list?  In another study I did last week, I ran across the same Greek word translated as “temptation” in this verse and was interested in one of its definitions.  The Greek word is peirasmos and it referenced being of the temptation the devil used to divert Jesus from his divine errand.

Romans 7:15 (NKJV)15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.

When I spend my time and energy in NOT giving in to temptation, then ultimately I am focused on the temptation!  I believe our enemy wants us to be so focused on the temptation and worrying about staying away from it, that it diverts us from our divine errand of being about God’s holiness and His Kingdom on earth.  He wants us so consumed with the temptation that even if we don’t ultimately fall into the very sin that we are trying to avoid, we at least never spend any time or energy on the top of the list that Jesus enumerated in is prayer!

What if, instead, we spent the majority of our time focused on the Holiness of God and what part we play in His Kingdom here on earth?  If I am focused on God’s holiness and busy about my role in God’s kingdom on Earth, how much time do I have to fall into temptation?  How much time do I have to worry about it?  How much more effective would I be in what He has for me to do?

This is a mind shift for me.

Stay tuned because tomorrow I’m writing about the next few verses in Luke 11, continuing Jesus’ teaching on prayer…

Running After Papa…

Do not be deceived…

I recently heard a teaching on deception that has been rattling around in my head for a while. No one is disqualified from the opportunity to be deceived. The first deception was Eve. The key I took from the teaching was that prior to her conversation with the serpent, Eve was perfect, flawless, and sinless… yet, she was able to have deception presented to her.

Even Jesus had deception presented to him when he was in the wilderness for 40 days to be tempted by the devil.

Deception starts in the mind. Which brings me to today’s scripture.

How do you read the following passage?

James 1:12-18 (ESV)
12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Where do you put v16? When I memorized this chapter, and even in reading it, I have always associated verse 16 as the intro into verse 17. “Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above…“

Last night it hit me. What if verse 16 is the concluding thought of verses 12-15? That totally changes the way it reads. The word tempted is pierazo which implies an aspect of testing what one thinks. The word desire in verse 15 is a synonym for the word pathos which means an affliction of the mind.

If deception starts in the mind by believing something not in line with the Word of God, then wouldn’t that lead to a basis on which I could fall to temptation?

2 Cor 10:4-5 (Amplified)
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood], but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds, 5 [Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One),

Every thought captive… that would ensure we are not deceived, which keeps us from falling to temptation.

What does it look like to take every thought captive?

Running After Papa…

Running After Papa