Evening, February 9
Go To Morning Reading
“Lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil [or, the evil
one].”
Luke 11:4
What we are taught to seek or shun in prayer, we should equally pursue
or avoid in action. Very earnestly, therefore, should we avoid temptation,
seeking to walk so guardedly in the path of obedience, that we may
never tempt the devil to tempt us. We are not to enter the thicket
in search of the lion. Dearly might we pay for such presumption. This
lion may cross our path or leap upon us from the thicket, but we have
nothing to do with hunting him. He that meeteth with him, even though
he winneth the day, will find it a stern struggle. Let the Christian
pray that he may be spared the encounter. Our Saviour, who had experience
of what temptation meant, thus earnestly admonished his disciples—“Pray that ye enter not into temptation.”
But let us do as we will, we shall be tempted; hence the prayer “deliver us from evil.” God had one Son without sin; but he has no son without temptation.
The natural man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards, and
the Christian man is born to temptation just as certainly. We must
be always on our watch against Satan, because, like a thief, he gives
no intimation of his approach. Believers who have had experience of
the ways of Satan, know that there are certain seasons when he will
most probably make an attack, just as at certain seasons bleak winds
may be expected; thus the Christian is put on a double guard by fear
of danger, and the danger is averted by preparing to meet it. Prevention
is better than cure: it is better to be so well armed that the devil
will not attack you, than to endure the perils of the fight, even
though you come off a conqueror. Pray this evening first that you
may not be tempted, and next that if temptation be permitted, you
may be delivered from the evil one.