…Is one component of the Lord’s Prayer…but what are we asking when we pray it?

“Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.” (Message)

“deliver us from the evil one.” (New Int’l Version)

“but deliver us from evil.” (King James Version)

The earliest manuscripts do not include “the Devil” or “evil one”.

When we pray this, what have we just requested of God? - What is evil?

I live in a part of Canada that has been historically known as the Bible belt. With the rise in organized crime it is now referred to as the Gun belt. The shootings and killings are evil. Is that what this prayer is referring to?

The economic disaster of 2008 has destroyed peoples’ savings due to corruption and greed; a reckless weakening of fiscal restraints and blatant fraud; is that the evil from which we need to be protected? I have saved for years to see freedom 55. Now I might see freedom 98.

I’ve walked with evil. Looked into Evil’s eyes. Cold eyes. Dark eyes. They cut off limbs, raped and behead.

What am I asking of God?

Keep Satan from me? Does that guarantee I wont be impacted by evil?

Evil is a safe thing when it is out there. Someone else. It’s the devil. Flip Wilson coined the phrase, “the devil made me do it.” It’s not my fault.

Evil is something that can generate self-pity - “look at all the horrible things that have happened to me.”

But what creates the greatest damage to a life?

…When evil moves within.

Deliver us from evil.

I asked my daughter to describe the “in crowd” at her school. She reduced it to about 20 kids. I asked, “What makes them “in”? She said they hang out by themselves. They make fun of others. They have lots of money, wear the latest clothing and can get whatever they want. So I asked, “How can 20 kids be in and 580 kids be out?” Why do we give sucha small group of people that kind of power?

I suspect it is because, if we are honest with ourselves, we want to be that powerful, that free, that wealthy. Prejudice, envy & greed. It is the exact same root that I witness in genocide and it lives in our schools, our businesses and in each of our hearts.

Lord, Deliver us from evil.

Proverbs 18:12(NIV)

12Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud,
but humility comes before honor.

Matthew 15:8-20 (NIV)

8” ‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
9They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.’”

10Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand.11What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean.’”

12Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”

13He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.14Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

15Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”

16“Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them.17“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body?18But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’19For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.20These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean.’ “

Deliver us from evil.

Isaiah 58:6-12 (NIV)

6“… loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

7…share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

8Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

9… “If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

10and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

Lord, Deliver us from evil.

Romans 12:1-2(NIV)

1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritualact of worship.2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Deliver us from evil.

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

9To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:10“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.11The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers (like prostitutes and addicts, like mobsters or gossipers) —or even like this tax collector (like my neighbour next door).12(I come to church.I give lots to charity. I treat my children well.’)

13“But the tax collector, (or my neighbor, the gossip, the thief) stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his chest and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

14“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Deliver us from evil.

Do you honestly want to be delivered from evil? Evil lives in the heart. It reveals itself in your words and attitudes.

David, after his adulterous affair with Bathsheba prayed,
“Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me.”

Lord, Deliver me from evil.