Lead Us Not into Temptation

In the Our Father we pray: “Lead us not into temptation”

God does not lead us into temptation.

The original Greek text means: Do not allow us to give into temptation and sin.

The Apostle James writes: Never, when you have been tempted, say, 'God sent the temptation'; God cannot be tempted to do anything wrong, and he does not tempt anybody. Everyone who is tempted is attracted and seduced by his own wrong desire. Then the desire conceives and gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it too has a child, and the child is death.

It is our vices or disordered desires that propel us to sin.

Pride, vain ambition, envy, sloth, anger, greed, gluttony, and lust.

Every person is dominated by two or three of these. It we want to avoid falling into sin, then we need to know ourselves and which of these vices we struggle with.

Do you know which deadly sins you fall into most often? If you don’t, do a brief examination of conscience each day for the next week. Look at when you have done wrong or failed to do right. Then ask, which of the deadly sins was at the root. It won’t take long to see a habit. Then make a concrete game-plan to deal with them ahead of time.