But deliver us from evil...

I posted the following to my Facebook feed recently before I'd restarted blogging so I figured I would add it here now.

"...but deliver us from evil…"

Lots of people are, rightly, praying and sharing the LORD'S Prayer on their social media. 

In this current situation, prayer is being focused on asking, pleading even, that the Coronavirus might pass, and quickly. 

God ALWAYS answers honest, earnest prayers - though often not in the way, or timescale that we might want! 

Have you ever thought about just where that line about delivery comes in the prayer? It's actually pretty late on.

God is a God of order. 

Maybe by allowing this pandemic God's intention is for us to acknowledge and address everything that precedes that line in the prayer rather than just jump to the bit that we want in a 'pick-and-mix' grab? 

OUR FATHER 

1. If there was no 'He' there would be no 'We.'

2. As children, we have the right and privilege to talk with Abba 'daddy'.

WHO ART IN HEAVEN.  

There is a realm beyond our world. All we see is not all there is.

HALLOWED BE THY NAME. 

He is Holy

THY KINGDOM COME, 

He is Sovereign

THY WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. 

His ways are not our ways. As the Psalmist says - Psalm 119:71

"It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees."

Might it be that at this time God is allowing this pandemic to save us from a fate worse than #Covid19?)

GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD

God is faithful on a daily basis. His blessings are new EVERY MORNING and more than enough for the needs of that day.

AND FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES, AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US,

If we are to be forgiven, it follows that we must be forgiving to others and show that forgiveness in action; loving others by putting their needs before our own - whether that's picking up the phone, or some shopping, or maybe not picking up that extra packet of toilet rolls or pasta? 

AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION 

God, will never cause us to sin though, as with Job He may allow us to be tested.

*BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL*.

It's only at this point, having previously come to understand - as evidenced by our actions - that God is: 

Real,

Creator, 

Holy, 

Sovereign,

All powerful

Knowable

Relational, 

All Sufficient, 

Forgiving, 

Loving…

That we are instructed by Jesus to ask for deliverance from evil!

The lesson is in the learning. 

God's deliverance from this present evil will undoubtedly include a scientifically engineered vaccine or, at the very least a compliance to social distancing by the majority of citizens across the world. 

As such, deliverance might not come as soon as we might like it - for our own good and the good of those around us. 

Too soon - without individual and collective acknowledgment of our fallen state and our total reliance on God - and mankind will be fooled into thinking 'we beat this' and life will return as it was before; with no thought for God or our need to be in a right relationship with Him through Christ) 

Whatever our response; however this plays out...

THE KINGDOM, 

THE POWER, 

AND THE GLORY, ARE HIS

FOREVER AND EVER. 

AMEN.