Lead Us Not Into Temptation

I was thinking about the phrase from the Lord's Prayer: "Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil." In this prayer we are asking God to direct us away from future temptations that would cause us to stumble into the sins that "so easily beset us" (as we would hope any good navigation program to route us around trouble on the road ahead).

One of the real dangers of a commitment to a holy life is to try and move into holiness based on human effort. This is the kind that resists temptation as it comes, only to find yourself a little worried that in the next wave of temptation you will not be able to endure it. This is resistance based on personal effort, which always leaves us feeling weaker and more susceptible to sin.

However, in the Lord's Prayer we are being invited into something more than human effort. In essence we are asking:

"Lord, you know my penchant of harboring a wandering heart and my tendency to think/act badly. Would you help me to steer clear of this by helping me to remember to look to you to lead me out of temptation when I feel the gravitational pull of sin? I admit that sinning is par for my wounded soul and that wandering from you for relief instead of running to you is really what I am best at doing without the direct action of your grace within me. Help me look to you for escapes In temptation, instead of in myself (1 Cor. 10:13)."

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

A great prayer.