For Thine is the Kingdom...

“For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory forever, Amen.”

If you grew up in the Roman Catholic Church, you were probably surprised the first time you heard this last part of The Lord’s Prayer. And rightly so, because these final words are not actually part of the prayer that Jesus taught the disciples. Instead, they are a “doxology” that was added to the end of the prayer very early in the history of the Christian church.

A “doxology” is a hymn that gives praise to God. The doxology that most people are familiar with is the one we sing right after the offering, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow…” (More on that some other time!)

This doxology on the end of the Lord’s Prayer sums up our response to God in light of what we have prayed. We prayed for God’s kingdom to come – and we affirm that God is indeed King. We prayed for help and sustenance. We affirm that God has the power to meet our needs. We prayed for forgiveness, and the forgiveness of others. We affirm that it is God who is glorified when we live out God’s grace – not just today, or even tomorrow, but forever!

Lead us not into temptation

“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
Does God actually lead anyone into temptation? Wouldn’t that be like a police office waving you to go through a red light, then giving you a ticket? The Bible says, When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone (James 1:13), so that can’t be what this means.

Looking more closely, you’ll discover that the second phrase, “Deliver us from evil,” gives meaning to the first, “Lead us not into temptation.” What we are praying is for God to protect us from situations that are so tempting to us that we will likely succumb and fall into sin. We’re saying “Keep me away from places where I’m going to be tempted beyond my strength, and keep away from me people and spiritual powers who are evil and are likely to draw me into sin.”

Of course, we need to cooperate with God in this. If you struggle with alcohol abuse, don’t go into bars. If you struggle with drugs, stay away from people who use them. If you’re tempted by pornography, get a filter and have someone else set the password! If you tend to overspend, freeze your credit card in a block of ice so you really can only use it in emergencies.  And, when tempted, remember to pray before you act.

God will always provide a way out – if we’ll only take it!