Father Help Us, Send Some Guidance from Above - Part VIII

…and lead us not into temptation

Man, I’m glad Jesus added that in there…if he hadn’t, God would be leading everybody into temptation all the time, and you’d never know WHAT was right or wrong, right?  Not exactly.  God is ultimate, supreme, and perfect good.  It’s not in his nature to “lead” anyone into temptation.  He cannot be tempted by evil, and he cannot tempt anyone to commit evil acts, either.  Here’s just one more example of why you can’t expect to read the English translation of the Bible on your own and understand EVERYTHING there is to pull out of the Scriptures.  The Greek phrasing used here means both “do not allow us to enter into temptation,” and “do not let us yield to temptation.”  This alludes to the whole Matthew 26:41 “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” thing. 

So why is it important for us to make this petition if it’s not possible for God to tempt us into committing evil acts?  Pretty simply, it’s for the exact opposite reason.  We are asking God to help us choose good, rather than evil.  Remember, God gave us all the gift of free will.  Because of this, God, in turn, chose to not force himself upon us.  He doesn’t FORCE us to make good choices.  If we’re praying for guidance and want to be good Christians, though, God is willing to offer his help to anyone who asks for it in weighing out the pros and cons of everyday decisions. 

One term you may hear in your faith journey is the word discern.  Discern fundamentally can be compared to the concept of “figuring something out.”  When dealing with matters of faith, we generally use it in association with discerning what is good versus what is bad, but we can also use discernment to help us choose between two good decisions.  When a guy is thinking about whether to become a priest, a married man, or a single man, we say he is discerning his vocation.  This implies a little more than just making a “decision.”  Using the word discern has more of a sense of ending up in a “realization” attached to it.  I tell people all the time that I believe loving someone is not a choice, but more of a realization.  I love my wife, but I don’t believe I “chose” to love her as in the sense of making an “effort” to come to that decision.  I noticed that not long after we started dating, I just sort of “realized” that I loved her.  It really just happened, and I just had to be in the right place and frame of mind and state of heart to realize what had happened.  It’s a similar situation with discerning the priesthood, discerning who to marry, or discerning right from wrong.  We have to come to a realization of what the best path is.  This petition is all about asking God to help us discern what is right and to help us commit to that end result.