This week my family and I have been at Word Alive 2015.

Day 6 (that is, the last day of Word Alive 2015) pretty much featured lots of packing, cleaning, queuing, more queuing and a last session back in the repaired and refitted Grand Marquee (well done, those darn fine technical and site teams!).

Here are my notes from Day 6…

Final Morning Celebration

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us
Matthew 6:13

The Lord’s Prayer highlights or weaknesses and our need of our Heavenly Father’s provision… and so much more when we consider our tendency to drift and wander from our good Creator and Redeemer and then seek and worship other Created things.

But how readily do we recognise our weakness in temptation?

We need to be directed away from temptation

The process of sin starts with temptation. We are enticed to evil things, and when that desire is full grown it gives way to sin (James 1). Sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death and destruction.

As we ask God to lead us away from temptation, we have a part to play in resisting sin and making ourselves accountable.

For instance, the first thing Satan does in Genesis is to doubt God’s Word. ‘Where has God said it is wrong to go out with an unbeliever’. We will always find a way to do what we want to do. And sin will always kill and destroy us.

That is why we need a new heart, with new desires. We need to have our heart drawn back to God

We need to be drawn back to our Heavenly Father

We cannot blame God for our temptations. We also mustn’t think of God as tempting us in order to test the sincerity of our faith.

In terms of God’s will for us, our Father does not desire is to be tempted. In his sovereignty, God uses every temptation and trial for his glory and our good. And so, we can draw near to the Father who is able to give us every good gift we need and, in particular, his Holy Spirit who renews or hearts and resets our desires.

We need a greater ‘temptation’, a greater desire for our hearts. We need to be captivated by the beauty, glory and power of Jesus and his Gospel.

We need to be delivered from the evil one

Satan is real, and he is our great enemy who is bent on our destruction. CS Lewis remarked that Satan often either makes himself invisible by becoming seemingly irrelevant to us, or by making us fascinated by him.

We must not think that we have to enter into a fight or battle with Satan, for Jesus had fought him and has defeated him fully on the cross. But we do need to seek the application of that victory in our lives by being delivered from Satan’s schemes, plans and even attacks.

Published by Alan Witchalls

Alan Witchalls is a vocational Gospel worker who currently lives in his home county of Essex, UK. He currently serves as the Director and Producer of Video Bible Talks, a video-based Bible teaching ministry. Alan is passionate about equipping and encouraging young people and families to live for Jesus in every area of life, particularly in helping teenagers to grow deep roots into the Bible and sound Christian theology that shows itself in how they live with and show love to other people.