I Pray The Lord My Soul To Keep - Part 2

I Pray The Lord My Soul To Keep – Part 2

Read Matthew 6:9-13 (KJV)

In the event of a fire in your home, the last thing you want to do is run around in the burning house (as is often seen on TV). The temperature at head level may well reach 600 degrees, and one blast of that heat could destroy your lungs. The only way to survive is on your hands and knees. At floor level, the temperature may be only 150 degrees, and crawling to an exit is the one way to withstand such conditions to survive.

For us as Christians, such conditions are not the extreme, but the norm. We need to stay on our knees to survive!
The reason we don’t pray more is that we have misunderstood the primary purpose of prayer. Prayer is more about getting to know God than getting answers, and Jesus shows us that prayer is all about recognizing our absolute dependence on God. That’s why we should pray. But in our own hearts, what do we really want when we pray? What is the desired result of our praying? God wants our praying to be the kind of experience we are drawn to, not one we are dragged into. When it comes to what we really want in prayer, we can narrow it down to five basic movements—all of which are found in Jesus’ model prayer.
The first movement in the Lord’s Prayer is all about connection. The second movement is about submission. The third and fourth are about provision and confession. The last movement, then, is about protection: “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” It’s just a handful of words, but they raise all kinds of questions—and offer a remarkable promise.

Of all the prayers we pray, the most frequent and most fervent is the prayer for protection—for the safety and well-being of ourselves and the ones we love. Last week we looked at “lead us” and “not into temptation.” This week, let’s look at “but deliver us from evil” and “for thine is the kingdom.”

“But Deliver Us From Evil”

Sometimes the road of life doesn’t just lead us past tempting situations. Sometimes it leads us right into hardship and trials that can also threaten our faith. With that in mind let’s look at the third phrase in this prayer: “Deliver us from evil.”
Let’s notice a couple of things here. The prayer isn’t “Keep us from evil,” but “Deliver us from evil.” This is not a prayer for immunity from trouble or danger or spiritual attack. The Lord never promises that if we pray enough, bad things won’t happen.
In fact, the word “deliver” assumes trouble. To deliver someone is to rescue them from danger or to see them through a hard time. For example, the people of Israel were delivered from Egypt, but only after 400 years of slavery, 10 plagues, and a frightening passage through the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s army on their tail. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were delivered from the fiery furnace, but only after being imprisoned and then thrown into the flames. Deliverance isn’t an exemption from trials; it’s an intervention in the midst of trials.

Notice also that it is “Deliver us from evil,” not “Deliver us from harm.” This isn’t so much about physical safety as it is about spiritual safety. Evil speaks of those dark forces in the world and in our souls that threaten to tear us away from God and to thwart his good purpose for our lives. That’s why some versions translate it, “Deliver us from the Evil One.” The Bible describes Satan as “a thief who comes to steal and kill and destroy”—as one “who prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking who he may devour.” This isn’t a prayer that bad things will never happen to us. It’s a prayer that bad things will never get to us—that they will not turn us away from God or derail the good work he has begun in us.

Jesus himself offered this prayer while praying for his disciples before going to the cross. In John 17:15, he prays, “My prayer is not that you take them out of this world but that you protect them from the evil one.” Jesus knew full well that his disciples would suffer on account of him—that they would be harassed, thrown in jail, even put to death. He knew that the forces of evil would come against them to silence their witness and shipwreck their faith. So, he prayed that in those difficult moments their faith would not fail—that they would be able to stand.

That’s how we pray for ourselves and our loved ones in times of spiritual danger. When you drop your child off at the university with scenes of School Daze or Stomp The Yard dancing in your head, you pray, Lord, keep them from people and influences that will lead them away from you. Guide them to a church, provide them with Christian fellowship. Don’t let them be confused by intellectual attacks on their faith but let it drive them deeper into your Word for answers.

When a married couple finds themselves in trouble, we pray, Lord, don’t let the Enemy drive a wedge between them. Keep them from doing something foolish or rash to relieve their pain. Help them to turn toward you and toward each other. Provide them with good counsel and friends who will walk beside them.

When tragedy strikes a family, we pray, Lord, meet them in their grief. Help them not to pull away from you in anger, but rather to bring their pain and anger to you. Let this experience draw them closer to you and grant them comfort and courage to face each day.

That’s deliverance from evil. It is not immunity from the hard things of life, but divine intervention that preserves and even strengthens our faith. It turns out that our childhood prayer wasn’t so far off after all: “If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” I’m still not convinced it’s the right prayer for a 5-year-old before he climbs into bed, but it reminds us that nothing—not even death—can separate us from God’s love and purposes.

When the apostle Paul was in prison, he wrote to the Philippians and expressed confidence that through their prayers, “all these things will turn out for my deliverance.” What he meant was that either he would be set free to continue preaching the gospel, or he would be martyred for his faith, and by his death inspire others to be more bold in their witness and go on to spend eternity with Christ. Either way, he and God would win. That’s deliverance from evil.

On one September morning, a Christian woman named Lisa Jefferson was working her usual shift as a supervisor at the Verizon Airfone Call Center when a distraught operator handed her a headset and told her that she was talking to a passenger on United Airlines Flight 93. “I’m Todd Beamer from Cranbury, New Jersey,” the voice on the other end of the line said. “Three people have hijacked the plane. Two have taken over the cockpit and are flying the plane.” As she was speaking to Todd, Lisa learned what was happening at the World Trade Center. She began to pray, even as she listened to the frightened voice on the other end. “If I don’t get out of this, will you tell my wife and family that I love them?” Todd said. She assured him that she would. Then Todd asked her to say the Lord’s Prayer with him. Slowly, phrase by phrase, he and Lisa prayed the prayer together. When they were done, Todd added, “Jesus, help me.” A few moments later, with resolve in his voice, he said to her, “A few of us are going to jump these guys.” Flight 93 soon crashed into a Pennsylvania farmland—instead of into our nation’s capital, where it would have caused even greater destruction.

James 1:12 (NIV)

“Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”

Todd Beamer knew how to pray. He had been doing it his whole life. When he found himself facing this trial, he knew what to do. He asked God to lead him—to help him stand. And stand he did. Todd received the crown of life that day, and in the process, he blessed his wife, his children, and untold numbers of Christ followers who have been inspired by his faith and courage.

None of us hope to find ourselves or someone we love thrust into a situation like that, but we never know what a day may bring. Whatever may come, we have this prayer, a prayer that invites God to bring us through trials and temptations with our faith intact and his glory increased. Certainly, there are times when God intervenes to save us from harm and rescues us from danger—probably many more times than we are even aware of. It’s right to pray for protection when we board an airplane or merge onto a highway or walk out the front door into a fallen and unpredictable world. But sometimes the road of life takes us headlong into trouble or heartache or grief. That’s why we ask God to lead us—to bring us through in a way that honors him, blesses others, and advances his good purpose for our lives.

“For Thine Is The Kingdom”

That brings us to the final phase in this prayer: “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.” As most Bibles indicate, that phrase isn’t present in the oldest and most reliable manuscripts. It was probably not part of the prayer Jesus taught his disciples. Perhaps it was added at the end of the second century. Still, it certainly is a biblical truth and a fitting way to end the prayer! Because real prayer doesn’t just begin with God, it ends with God, too. Here we have just the right words to close out a prayer for protection—a reminder that God’s kingdom alone is advancing, and that all the power and glory is due him forever.

I’m convinced, when I look at my own life and when I look at Christianity in our culture, that one of the reasons we are so casual with prayer is because we actually believe we can do this thing on our own, and we can sustain our lives on our own. We believe that because we have the “things” to prove it. We have bought into the lie, the materialism, that has told us we don’t really need God—we just need our stuff. We can make it without God because we have got all our things.

Jesus says the core of prayer is you realizing you have a Father in heaven who desires to give every good and perfect gift to you—and you need him, not bread. You need him—not water, not air, not all of these things you hunger and long for. You need him, and he will provide those things for you. We don’t need things. We need God. Prayer is God’s gift to us to help us remember this truth every day.

Richard Foster wrote this about prayer: “Real prayer comes not from gritting our teeth but from falling in love.” Let’s pursue that!