9. What prayer for divine guidance should we pray? Matthew 6:13, first part.
NOTE: ‘We should pray that God will not permit us to be brought where we shall be drawn away by the desires of our own evil hearts. In offering the prayer that Christ has given, we surrender ourselves to the guidance of God, asking Him to lead us in safe paths. We cannot offer this prayer in sincerity, and yet decide to walk in any way of our own choosing. We shall wait for His hand to lead us; we shall listen to His voice, saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” Isaiah 30:21. It is not safe for us to linger to contemplate the advantages to be reaped through yielding to Satan’s suggestions. Sin means dishonour and disaster to every soul that indulges in it; but it is blinding and deceiving in its nature, and it will entice us with flattering presentations. If we venture on Satan’s ground we have no assurance of protection from his power. So far as in us lies, we should close every avenue by which the tempter may find access to us. The prayer, “Lead us not into temptation,” is itself a promise. If we commit ourselves to God we have the assurance, He “will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13.’ Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, pages 117-118.
10. Because we live in an evil world, what further prayer should be ours? Matthew 6:13, next part.
NOTE: ‘When, without our seeking it, or running into it, we meet temptation and trial, than we may pray with trust and confidence to our Heavenly Father, “Deliver us from evil.” He is able to keep us from falling and is even more anxious to keep us spotless than we are to be kept from sin. There is only one way that we can overcome temptation, and be delivered from evil. Jesus tells us the only way, when He says: “Overcome evil with good.” Yet in us “dwelleth no good thing,” so of ourselves we have no good with which to “overcome evil.” For “there is none good but one, that is, God,” and everything that is good must come from Him. So we may read this in its true meaning, “Overcome evil with God.” And this is just what His Word tells us to do; for “He gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver as from this present evil world.” God has given us Himself, so that we may be able to overcome all evil. Have you received the wondrous gift? and do you know His power to keep you? You cannot get the evil out of your heart in any other way than by letting Him come in. Then His presence in your heart will drive out evil, because “evil cannot dwell with Him.” What is the only way that you can get rid of darkness? It is by letting light shine in, and then where is the darkness? It is overcome, swallowed up, by the light, so that it disappears completely, and is not. All evil is darkness, which the light of the Son of Righteousness only can dispel. But when He arises and shines in our hearts, where will the darkness or the evil be? It will be destroyed by the brightness of His shining, just as the light of day causes the darkness of night to vanish away. Only light can overcome darkness; only good can overcome evil; only life can overcome death; and only God can overcome Satan. Are you not glad that “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts”? When you feel any evil thought rising up in your mind, any naughty temper in your heart, any unkind word coming to your lips, will you not remember that He has given Himself to save you from this evil? Will you not ask Him to shine it all away, and overcome the evil with His own goodness? Then as you learn more and more to know His power over all the power of Satan, you will be able to sing with new meaning the beautiful Psalm of David, that you well know:-“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me.”’ E. J. Waggoner: Present Truth, December 27, 1900.