In and Within 17 Ah Wilderness, Thy Name is Temptation

[HKHaugan]

“And Lead Us Not Into Temptation, But Deliver Us From the Evil One.”

Jesus continues His teaching on prayer with this third Father-dependent clause, which is more than a request---it is a plea. It is a plea to the Father not to have to deal with temptation. There is something ominous in this clause that Jesus knows full well faces us all. He’s been there. He faced it alone in the wilderness for forty days and nights. “He was tempted in every way as we are yet was without sin (Heb.4:15).” It was agonizing for Him and He knows that it is always agonizing for us. It happens at the point of our inner heart weaknesses that are continually popping up wherever we are. Temptation is the thin underbelly of the spiritual life. Temptation is the spiritual precipice in every next moment. But before we can really get a handle on the idea of temptation and its traps we need to visit the basic human condition.

From our first breath and cry on through our crib time into our child and teen years we find ourselves in a growing awareness of aloneness and the need to understand and control it. Being human is being alone in a body and trying to get control over our aloneness, control over how we think, what we feel and the way we relate to others. It’s all because of sin. Sin has isolated us from God and one another. We live in spiritual, physical and emotional isolation. It’s especially strong in the midst of others.

Thus our early years are experimental. We develop self-indulgent likes and dislikes, rights and wrongs, a kind of personal morality. When we don’t like something we reject it and even rebel against it or find some secretive way to get around what or who seems to keep us from what we believe will satisfy us at any moment. We get angry when we don’t get what we want. We find ourselves in a battle of wills. We have internal and external conflicts as we seek to gain what we want. We live from moment to moment taking notes along the way. Sin and its self-centering drive is the normative influence in control.

Whether it is in a family, a social group, a team or something similar, we learn from those environments and sort out a variety of techniques and strategies to gain a foothold in the wilderness in which we find ourselves. It’s always who is in and who is out, how we fit or don’t fit and what is necessary to avoid rejection and its inner pain. Again our personal morality finds rejection bad and acceptance good. So whatever works to gain acceptance and avoid rejection is our way to live. What kind of an impression we make influences how we tailor our reactions. Sin provides the spirit of pride to build a cover empowered by the spirit of fear, which of course we go to great efforts to deny.

At the heart of all this adjusting, as we have said, is the element that drives our adjustment engine, fear. Fear because we are alone. Fear because we need to be part of the larger picture around us. Fear because within we are not sure we can make it without being careful in the midst of others. What if we don’t have whatever we need to make it ‘out there?’ The world is ‘out there’ and demands a moment-by-moment adjustment to it.

The ‘me’, the ‘I’ in me, is afraid and that fear says ‘take control.’ Only I can do it. Here lies the root of pride. No one else can live your life. You are on your own. Learn how to think in a way that sets a sentinel at the door of your emotions, to think in a way that gathers and practices acceptable relational techniques and then finds the means of economic security to support your personal conclusions. Sin invites the spirit of fear and fear invites the spirit of pride. Its conclusion? There is no god but me.

Now we can approach the theme of temptation. It’s all about the lure to believe I’m in control apart from God, thinking I can take and then possess control over my mind, heart and spirit. Here is where we find the three basic characteristics of temptation---thinking apart from God, trusting apart from God and relating apart from God. Giving into these temptations is the process of self-deification. Henley’s poem “Invictus” sums it up, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” Fear and pride are the spirits at work, the ‘groupies’ that ride the idols behind temptation. They urge us to use whatever strategy fits the moment. That is the nature of temptation. Choose from among the smart, trendy, verbal, dress and emotional expressions socially available. They are easy to come by and easier to use. You can even embellish them to fit your individuality.

It is this vulnerable area of our desire for personal control where temptation plays out its cards. It hits us at the point of where we are, what we think, how we feel, whom we trust and what motivates our action. It is the fact of temptation that should be a warning light signaling us ahead of time that all our attempts at control are nothing but a façade born out of and borne in self-deception. We know what is really going on inside. It is the fountain of narcissism. The truth is we all know inside that it is really all a sham but we continue to play the game anyway. That’s the reality of sin.

To add fuel to temptation’s fire there is a tempter, a spiritual being whose primary goal is to separate us from God and maintain that separation no matter what it takes. He is the dealer drawing you into the stud poker of self-deception, which he knows you can’t win. He is the master of self-deceit since his very nature is sin and deceit with which he stokes the furnace of our pride. This being has several names, satan, devil, Lucifer, father of lies, deceiver, evil one and tempter.

He started the spiritual separation process with Adam and Eve. His strategy is quite simple. He has a four-fold plan, which he used on Adam and Eve to isolate them from God and each other. He continues to use it because it works. Here are the temptations we face everyday in every next moment in every next thought and every next encounter.
First, doubt God’s Word. You can think perfectly well without it.
Second, doubt God. He is not here. He’s out there somewhere.
Third, think and act apart from God. You are your own god.
And fourth, get someone else involved. Everyone really wants what you want.

It’s all right there in Genesis 3. In fact the condition of sin, with its spirits of fear and pride, and its consequences, which we have taken time to describe above, can all be found in that unique chapter. The devil is why Jesus teaches us to pray, “Deliver us from the evil one.” Be aware of who is egging you on to play your pride cards. He is real. He is determined. He is successful at his task. He’s been at for a long, long, long time and he has a flock of evil spirits and demons to assist him. He is a master at observing and playing to your weaknesses. Unlike God the Son, purposely revealing Himself as Lord and Savior, the devil hides in the darkness, avoids exposure, lurks behind and in the belief that he doesn’t exist, chameleonizes himself in the bushes of everything we think we can control. Jesus exposed him in the wilderness, gave us Scripture to identify his strategy and His Holy Spirit to rebuke him. Sin makes us temptable but through the Cross of Jesus we are redemptable.

It is because of our sinful condition and its tormentor, the devil, that Jesus teaches us to pray “lead us not in temptation but deliver us from the evil one.” That is, “Help us to be released from the sinful need to be in control and turn everything over to you, the Father. Please Father, don’t let me succumb to the spirit of control. Deliver me from the devil and his control schemes that would separate me from you and others. Father, in your Word you said Jesus is your Son and that we should listen to Him. I am now praying to you through Him and His Words. Thank you Father for showing me through Him who you are and who I am to you. So I pray Father, please don’t let me fall into the control trap, don’t let me even try to take control even if I think I am right and everything around me is wrong. Keep my mind in line with your mind, my heart tuned to your heart and my spirit guided by your Spirit. I know temptation is a greedy master and it posts its allure at the crossroads of my every next thought, my every next encounter, my every next response in my every next moment. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear the evil one for Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me and I will dwell in your house forever (Ps.23).”