PRAYING FOR REMOVAL
Matthew 6:13
As we study the Lord’s prayer, we discover this is more than a rote prayer. This prayer gives principles and precepts to guide us into deeper communication with our Lord. The world is filled with temptations and an enemy seeking to destroy us. Our final petition in the prayer closet is to ask for deliverance from the temptations and the tempter.
We pray for God to deliver us, to rescue or to snatch us from “evil” or “the evil one.” Is it evil or the evil one? Well the author of all evil is the evil one. There is a worldly spirit of darkness that once influenced our lives and now is our enemy in spiritual battle (Eph. 2:2 and 6:10-20). Matthew 4 reveals when Jesus was personally tempted by the devil.
We ask God to lead us not into temptation and to deliver us, snatch us, and save us from Satan and his evil schemes against us. Satan prowls about as a lion seeking to devour us (1 Peter 5:8). Every Christian has an enemy who hates us and wants nothing more than to see us fall and fail. Our enemy does not wear a body of flesh and blood. He is spiritual in nature and must be battled with spiritual weapons (2 Cor. 10:3-5).
We plead for God’s help in the battle with this enemy. We acknowledge our inability to wage war on our own. We call on the name of the Lord, employing His power to stand against the devil. Remember our previous prayers. We praised our Father who made us His children. We pray for all His children to experience victory in this battle. Our Father is in control, in heaven, from where He already cast out the evil one (Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28). Our God reigns! Our God rules! Our God is in control! We have prayed for His will to be done which includes enabling us to choose His will in the moment of temptation. His kingdom is coming, and the devil will eventually be destroyed. We can overcome the darkness with light!
Be on guard against relying on our own strength for deliverance. We cannot face the battle without the Lord. Are we humble enough to recognize we need God to give us daily victory over sin? Step into the closet this morning and offer a prayer to God and watch Him deliver us all from evil today.
Pastor Chris Thompson