By PASTOR KYLE SMITH
Ellendale
In working through the Lord’s Prayer, we have now come to the seventh and final petition, “deliver us from evil.” But aren’t there all kinds of evil in this world? Evil in our own country and evil in other countries? Isn’t evil going to exist until Jesus returns and makes all things new? Does this mean that God never answers this prayer? Why would Jesus want us to pray a prayer that isn’t going to be answered? That’s just it, we may not always see it and it may not always be in the way we want, but God does answer this prayer of ours!
When we ask God to “deliver us from evil,” we are asking Him to spare us from the evils in this world, such as sickness, injury, heartache, injustice, and so on. When we read the book of Psalms, we see how often the Psalmist prays that the Lord will “deliver me.” One example of this would be Psalm 59:1 where David said, “Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; protect me from those who rise up against me.” This verse, and all of chapter 59, is during a time before David was king, and King Saul had sent his men to watch David’s house to kill him. Talk about wanting to be delivered from your enemies!
When we ask God to “deliver us from evil," we also ask him to help us endure the troubles that come our way and keep us faithful to Him until death. As much as we would prefer not to endure any more evil in this world, evil still exists and sinful people are going to sin, bringing evil and heartache upon us. But we do know that the Lord is with us and with His help we will make it through our trials and tribulations. We know from James 1:2-3 that we should “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” As difficult and unenjoyable as trials are, we are to welcome the opportunity to have our faith tested and strengthened.
When we ask God to “deliver us from evil,” we are also asking Him to keep us faithful to Him, so that we may be with Him when we die or when we return, whatever comes first. Despite our sins, or perhaps we should say, because of our sins, we are to confess our sins to God and receive His forgiveness every day. We see in 2 Thessalonians 3:3, “But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.” While we fail Him daily, God never fails us.
Knowing and being confident that God remains faithful to us, we pray that we would remain faithful to Him.
When we ask God to “deliver us from evil,” we are also asking to be delivered from the power of Satan. Currently, Satan is on the loose, as we see in 1 Peter 5:8, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Yikes! But we do know that our Lord Jesus Christ has crushed Satan’s head at the cross. Jesus has already defeated Satan, the battle is won, it’s only a matter of time before we see the final culmination of Jesus’ victory over Satan.
So why pray “but deliver us from evil”? When we ask God to “deliver us from evil,” we are asking Him to spare us from the evils in this world, we are asking him to help us endure the troubles that come our way and to keep us faithful to Him until death, we are asking Him to take us to Him, so that we may be with Him, and we are also asking to be delivered from the power of Satan. We pray to God that He will deliver us from evil not because we wonder if He will, but because as disciples of Jesus, God has already delivered us from the greatest evil of all, sin, death, and the devil. And now we confidently and boldly pray that God would continue to be faithful to Him for the rest of the time He gives us here on earth.