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bis daily bread. He is not j ust sit–
ting still, waiting for the bread to
somehow be handed to him .
Receiving forgiveness of sins (verse
12) also depends upon whether we
do our part- forgiving others. Sim–
ilarly, the petition " Lead us not
into sore trial" assumes the person
praying is diligently straightening
out bis own life so God might not
have to straighten it out for him.
When God allows sore trials to
come upon us it is for our own
good- to wake us up, to teach us
lessons. If we are learning those les–
sons by ourselves, we are much fu r–
ther ahead. Notice how the verb
forro of the same word we are
translating "sore tria!" is used in
11
Corinthians 13:5:
"Examine
[test!
try!] yourselves, whether ye be in
the faith; prove your own selves."
Then
God won't have todo it for
you!
Jeremiah recognized that God
does find it necessary to try bis
people. He prayed, "O Lord, cor–
rect me, but with j udgment; not in
thine anger, lest thou bring me to
nothing" (Jer. 10:24). I n other
words, he asked to be corrected,
but preferably without being
brought into overly severe trial.
The Bible refers to hard trials as
"fiery t rials" (
1
Pet. 4: 12). Being
sorely tried is not naturally enjoy–
able. As Peter wrote to Christians:
" ... now for a season,
if
need be.
ye
are in heaviness through manifold
temptations [sore trials] "
(1
Pet .
1:6). However, he points out in the
next verse, the results of being so
tried are "more precious than of
gold."
Though we may be severely
tried, we have the promise that
"God is faithful, who will not suf–
fer you to be tempted [tried] above
that ye are able; but will with the
temptation [sore trial) also make a
way to escape, that ye may be able
to bear it"
(1
Cor. 10:13).
"All things work together for
good to them that love God," the
Bible asserts (Rom. 8:28). Realiz–
ing that God's will is always best,
James exhorted : "My brethren,
count it all joy when ye fall into
divers temptations [sore trials]"
(Jas. 1:2).
When Trials lnvolve Temptations
Many have wondered about Gene–
January
1985
sis 22: l, which says, "And it carne
to pass ... that God did
tempt
Abraharn." What follows is the
familiar account of Abraham pre–
paring to sacrifice bis son Isaac on
an altar in obedience to God's
instructions. God wanted to test
Abraham's faith. There was no
question of deceit here, for we have
already seen that "God cannot be
tempted with evil, neither tempteth
he any man [with evi l] " (Jas .
1: 13).
A better rendering of Genesis
22 :1 is, "And it carne to pass
... that God did prove [or sorely
try] Abraham."
Sometimes, however, temptation
to do evil does become a part of
When God allows
sore trials to come
upon us it is
for our own good-to
wake us up,
to teaéh us lessons.
sore trial. This is illustrated by
what happened to ancient Israel.
God had told them to "remember
all the way which the Lord thy God
led thee these forty years in the
wilderness, to humble thee, and to
prove ["sorely try"-same word
wrongly translated "tempt" in
Genesis 22:1] thee, to know what
was in thine heart, whether thou
wouldest keep his commandments,
or no" (Deut. 8:2).
Here again God was doing the
testing . But this time sin
was
involved, for the Israelites rebelled
against their Creator. They yielded
to temptation to sin. Where did the
temptation come from? From
God? No. God does not tempt to
do evil. Where then? From their
own lusts, because "every man is
tempted, when he is drawn away of
his own lust, and enticed. Then
when lust hath conceived, it bring–
eth forth sin ..." (Jas. 1:14-15).
God did not test them with more
than they could have withstood- if
they had been willing to do their
par
t.
To make matters worse, human
lusts are constantly stirred up by
Satan and his influence. He is
called the "tempter" (Matt. 4:3).
He tempts to do evil (Mark 1: 13).
This brings us to another facet of
the meaning of Jesus' teaching.
"Lead us not into sore tria!" is
immediately fol lowed by "but
deliver us from evil," oras it can be
translated, " but deliver us from the
evil one." As Jesus was instructing
his disciples how to pray, it was
fresh in bis mind that he himself
had recently been Jed into hard test–
ing when the devil tried, literally, to
tempt him to do evil. "Then was
J esus
led
up of the Spirit into the
wilderness to be
tempted
[sorely
tr ied] of the devil" (Matt. 4: 1).
Here again sore tria! included temp–
tation todo evil. But the temptation
was of the devil, not of God.
In this fateful encounter with
Satan, the ruler of the present
world, Jesus prevailed. He over–
carne Satan, thus qualifying to be
King over the earth.
We must overcome Satan too,
though God does not permit the
devil to try us as severely as he
tried Jesus. Whenever we do not
resist Satan (Jas. 4:7), we provide
opportunity for him to tempt us
(1
Cor. 7:5).
lt
is even possible for
a church member to so neglect put–
ting sin ou t of bis life that , to wake
him up, God will give him over to
Satan for sorne sore trying. That 's
what the apostle Paul referred to
when he instructed the church at
Corinth under his charge to "de–
liver such an one unto Satan for the
destruction of the flesh , that the
spirit may be saved in the day of
the Lord Jesus" (I Cor. 5:5).
We should pray that we do ñ.ot
have to be tried in that way.
God is working out bis purpose
in our lives. He tests and tries us as
needed to develop righteous char–
acter in us. The more perfect God's
Spirit in us enables us to become,
the fewer trials will be necessary.
When we pray, " Lead us not into
sore t ria!, but deliver us from evil,"
we are asking God to perfect us and
bring us to the place where such
trials are not needed .
o
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