Lead Us Not Into Temptation

One

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

To be clear, God does not lead us into temptation. The original Greek text means, “Do not allow us to give into temptation and sin.”

Temptation does not come from God. It comes from the world, the flesh, meaning our fallen human nature, and it comes from the devil. 

We can’t control the world or Satan. With God, however, we can control ourselves, our fallen human nature can be transformed by Christ. 

It is our vices or disordered desires that tempt us to sin: Pride, vain ambition, envy, sloth, anger, greed, gluttony, and lust. Every person is dominated by two or three of these. If we want to get free from these, then we must identify the two or three deadly sins that dominate us, that are our predominant faults. 

Do a brief examination of conscience each day for the next week. Look at what 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 pattern. Then, make a concrete game plan to act differently.

Two

If we want to get rid of sin then we must remove the near occasion of sin.

Jesus said that if your hand causes you to sin, you should cut it off. And if your eye causes you to sin, you should pluck it out. After all, it’s better to get into heaven missing a body part than to have the whole of you get tossed down into the fires of Hell.

You may have to cut certain things out of your life, certain things that aren’t bad in themselves, but which, for us, are near occasions of sin. 

Sin is nearly always linked to particular situations. Sinful behavior and addiction are largely environmental. If you put folks in a certain environment, they’re almost certain to give in to their temptation. But if you remove them from that environment, the intensity of their temptations and their likelihood of giving into it goes way down. This is just what classic Catholic moral advice has always said: avoid the near occasion of sin.

If a man struggles with lust and looking at pornography, then scrolling through YouTube will be a deadly occasion of sin. So remove the near occasion, delete your YouTube App. Comparing yourselves to others might be the thing that is killing you – so stop using social media. Is the news about the world and the Church causing you fear, anxiety, and anger? Then cut it out. Do you drink too much? Then get rid of the alcohol. Do you really need these more than Heaven? Really???

The eye we need to pluck out, the hand we need to cut off, is the environment, the situation, in which we are prone to succumb to our particular vices.

Willpower isn’t primarily about resisting temptation when the storm hits. By the time the temptation hits, we’re usually too far gone to resist. Willpower is about strategizing in advance. It’s about identifying the situations in which we’re tempted and avoiding them. Jesus doesn’t say, “If your eye causes you to sin, just resist the temptation next time.” He says pluck out your eye, cut out the occasion of temptation. Change your environment and temptation will diminish. 

Three

With God’s help, we strive to remove all sin and all occasions of sin, but we don’t want God to remove all trials.

Some trials are necessary for our growth in virtue and spiritual maturity. Again, the Apostle James writes, “My brothers, you will always have your trials but, when they come, try to treat them as a happy privilege; you understand that your faith is only put to the test to make you patient, but patience too is to have its practical results so that you will become fully-developed, complete, with nothing missing… Happy the man who stands firm when trials come. He has proved himself, and will win the prize of life, the crown that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”

In strength training, you must add weight or resistance to get stronger. God allows trials to make his children grow in virtue and merit. God allows us to face trials that call for courage so that we grow in courage. He allows trials that call for honesty so that we grow in honesty. He allows trials that call for fidelity so that we grow in fidelity.

If God is allowing some trial in your life, there is only one reason. He is exercising his chosen athletes to become glorious. So let us not ask that we be spared the trials that perfect us. Let us not ask that we be left mediocre. Rather, pray that we be made glorious sons and daughters of God by means of the trials Our Father allows and his grace that strengthens us!

We must know the difference between two things: Temptation which leads to sin and death, which we must avoid, and trials which are necessary for our growth in the likeness of God, which we must embrace. 

Four

Jesus put the Apostles to the test.

Before entering the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said to Peter, James, and John, “Pray you will not enter into temptation.”

They did not pray, they slept. When the trial broke, they forsook him and fled. 

The Catechism says, “Such a battle and such a victory become possible only through prayer.”

Vocal prayer, like saying the name of Jesus, is powerful, but we must go further, to Mental Prayer where we think deeply about Christ, what he is telling us, and about ourselves and our own behavior, so that we are convicted to make strong resolutions to change. 

Meditating on the Word of God in the Rosary is a great start. Now, let God draw you into a more extended time of silent reflection. 

Five

In the last line of the Our Father, Jesus teaches to pray, “Deliver us from evil.”  

The greatest evil from which we need to be delivered is sin, and the root cause of sin is pride. Pride is all the ways we try to create our identity and prove our worth apart from God.  

Not universally but often men try to create their identity and personal value through achievements and women through their children and grandchildren. What you personally achieve or what your kids or grandkids do or become does not determine who you are.

Who are you? What is your worth? You are a son or daughter of God. He is your Father. That is your identity. And what are you worth? All the blood of Christ. You are worth the life of God. Invaluable.

So with God as your Father, no matter what happens, your identity and value are safe, you are safe!

Now that you know who you are and what you are worth, seek transforming union with Jesus and go and do something good for others! If you make that a habit then you will be delivered from all evil.