SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/5/2020 8:59 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Protection of Prayer”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 6:13
Message of the
verse: “13
’And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
As we begin this section I have made
the decision, at least as we begin it, that I will once again quote from John
MacArthur’s book “Jesus’ Pattern of Prayer.”
I am doing this because this chapter has so much richness in it,
including at first a review, that I want everyone who reads this to get all
that the Spirit of God wants them to get out of it. One more thing that I want to mention and
that is, that as I began this section of Scripture it was my goal to learn how
to have a more effective prayer life, and also it was my goal to learn how I am
to be praying about the scandal that is going on in our country as far as the
election, and that goal has been met as I wrote about it in the section “thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
MacArthur begins “We have been
learning to pray. Our teacher has been
the Lord Jesus Christ, who has given us this model.
“My own praying, has been reshaped
to fit this pattern, for this Lord’s Prayer, Disciples’ Prayer is a skeleton
for all praying. The ingredients for this prayer touch every area
of need and every element of glorifying and praising God.
“It is a prayer that in every phrase
and every petition focuses on God, His person, His attributes, and His
wonderful works. True prayer is expressing
absolute dependence on God.
And that is what our Lord is after.
“The basic reality of this prayer is
the truth about God. Every petition promises
something that He already guarantees.
God’s name will be hallowed.
God’s kingdom will come. His will
is to be done. He has already promised
to give us our daily bread; He has already granted us total forgiveness in
Christ. And He’s already promised that
He will lead us away from evil in the path of righteousness.
“The more we understand about the promises of God, the
richer our prayers become. The premium has been paid by
Christ, the policy is ours. The benefits
are rendered in our behalf, and all we have to do is make the claim.
“We’ve noted that all the features
of this prayer speak of God. ‘Our
Father’ speaks of God’s paternity; ‘hallowed be thy name,’ of God’s priority;
‘thy kingdom come,’ His program; ‘thy will be done in earth as it is in
heaven,’ His purpose; ‘give us this day our daily bread,’ His provision;
‘forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,’ His pardon; and finally,
‘lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’ speaks of God’s protection. It ends with God’s preeminence in the great
closing doxology.
“The first three petitions relate to
God and His glory. The last three relate
to man and his need. We come then to
verse 13, the sixth and final petition: ‘Lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from evil.’ At first it seems
clear, almost simple. It’s like ‘Keep us
out of trouble God.’
“But as we look a little closer, several
questions arise.
“Do we have to ask God to not lead
us into temptation?
“Can a holy, righteous, pure,
undefiled, blameless, unblemished, virtuous God possibly lead anybody into
temptation??
“And if we do not ask Him to deliver
us from evil, is He going to lead us into evil?
The term temptation is
neutral. On one had it can refer to a
solicitation to evil. In that case God
has no part.
“James 1:13 says, ‘Let no man say
when he is tempted, I am tempted of God:
for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man.’
“On the other hand it can refer to a
trial or test for our good. If we say,
‘Don’t lead us into a trial, Lord,’ are we denying another verse in James 1
that says to count it all joy when you enter into a trial? You can see the dilemma, can’t you?
“I think Chrysostrom, the early church
Father was right when he said that this particular petition is the most natural
appeal of human weakness as it faces danger.
In other words, it is not so cognitive as it is emotional. It’s cry of the heart that despises and hates
the potential of sin.”
“Definition of cognitive
1: of, relating to, being, or involving conscious intellectual activity
(such as thinking, reasoning, or remembering)
cognitive impairment
2: based on or capable of being reduced to empirical factual
knowledge”
With
that definition we will be done with this SD for today.
12/5/2020 9:34 AM
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