CD - The Sixth Petition - Psalm 23

If the Lord is my Shepherd, and I should lack nothing, then why should I worry about being lead into temptation? Besides, God is not evil. He does not tempt us, does He? First, let us look at what is temptation. There are two types of tempting. One is an enticement to do evil. In other words, either the devil, our sinful lusting, or the vices and evils of the world tempt us to do what is wrong. The other type of tempting is an act of testing. This testing, by God, is for the purpose of purifying and strengthening our faith. God never tempts us to sin, but He does at times test our faith.

In this sixth petition, we do not ask God, necessarily, to take all temptation from us because we would remain infants in our faith. If we never suffered temptation we would not, could not, mature in our faith in Jesus. Rather than ask God to take away all temptation, we ask for the strength, the increase of faith, to overcome the evils of the devil, the world, and our own sinful nature and to obtain our final victory in heaven.

Our faith is strengthened by the Word of God as we face our daily trials and temptations. We may not like the trials we must oftentimes face, but we can be assured that, in the end, when we have overcome these trials or temptations, our faith will be stronger. We will be more mature Christians from the experience. Therefore, we are not praying for temptation or going around looking for it, with the thought of making ourselves better Christians. If we go looking for temptation, we will probably get it and will not be able to handle it. This is what we call putting God to the test. We put God to the test by putting ourselves into the position to be tempted, expecting God to “bail us out.” In the same way we do not challenge Satan, but we do know with Christ’s help we can overcome any attacks by Satan (simply rebuke him in the name of Jesus.) We must remember that, only with God’s help, can we overcome temptation. He gets the credit, not us, because He helps us to overcome.

We must know, too, that, when temptation comes, God also sends us a way out, a way not to give in to temptation. We may not see this way out immediately, but God has promised that He will never allow us to be tempted above what we can handle. In other words, we know temptations will come so we pray for the strength to overcome these temptations. The way out always comes before the temptation can overcome us, that is, takes us from faith in Jesus. One last thing we must know and forever remember is that all sins are forgivable. The only unforgivable sin is dying in unbelief. All other sins have already been forgiven.

Almighty Father, forgive me when I doubt Your presence. Thank You for the trials and testing of faith which You allow me to struggle through in order to strengthen my faith. Keep me ever in Your watchful care. Deliver me from all sins, from death and the power of the devil. Assure me of Your ever protecting hand. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.