GodSprings - 19, May, 2017

What Should I Really Pray for Others and Myself?

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

Matthew 6:13

In one of the cartoons by nakedpastor.com on my Facebook page, a man at a church meeting says to himself, “Oh great! Here comes Bob. I told him I’d pray for him! Dear God, help Bob. Amen.”

He then reaches out his hand to Bob and enthusiastically says, “Hey bob, been praying for you.”

What do we pray for the people we love most? What do we tell God we want in the future for our parent, spouse, kids and friends? We probably pray for their physical well-being. We pray that God will give them something that they desire, or they want.

Lead us not into temptation is the last phrase of the Lord’s prayer and I believe Jesus is trying to tell us, that, this is the way you should end your prayers. It should also be noted that the usage over here is not singular but plural. In fact, it has been like that all throughout the prayer – forgive us, give us, lead us not.

So what is it that we should be praying for each other? Materially we need bread to survive. Spiritually we need forgiveness to carry on. Morally we need protection. We usually pray that people might not be ill, no accidents etc. But here we find  Jesus teaching us to pray into the future with regard to where our lives are going. What we need to pray about has to do with our moral direction.

In a way, this pray is the normal cry of the believer’s sense of weakness that he/she lives in a dangerous environment. We know ourselves well. We know that we can be in situations that could be tests for our strengthening but they become temptations.

When we pray this prayer, we confess that we are afraid of our weakness and inabilities. We are asking Lord to be our protector. We are asking God to keep us away from the situation that will ruin us. We are affirming that we want Jesus to be our rock, shelter, refuge and hiding place.

Let us pray – Dear Lord, as we face the danger living in this world we confess our shortcomings and fears.  We know temptation is going to come, but when it does, we want You to be our deliverer and make sure You lead us in the direction of obedience