Spurgeon: February PM
* 02/09/PM
"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.