Pray Like This #9 -- Deliver us from the evil one

Updated: Apr 6, 2022

General peace endures. Still seeking balance with Rob, but with wisdom and compassion; it will happen in time. Sheila was across the hall with an aide once during the week, but no major hauls happening yet. Praying for safe travels for Mike on Saturday. His plan is to not have anyone riding with him to visit me, which is a matter of some concern considering his COPD may cause a major coughing fit with momentary blackout at any random moment. :/ But in talking with him yesterday, he reassured me that his system gives him ample notice ahead of an episode so he knows to pull over until he gets settled again. It will be the first time we'll be face to face in person since Memorial Day weekend of 1992!! We're both super excited!! :D At the same time, pray for a good day while my parents take Rob to Portsmouth to announce a Basketball Tournament. In other news, my ex-boyfriend, but still close friend, Jeremy, lost his father Tuesday night. He had been battling cancer for 5-6 yrs. He had asked God for an additional 10 yrs. as did Hezekiah, but the added time was still a blessing. Pray for Jeremy's grieving process as he will not be able to attend the services in person due to living in Omaha and his dad and step-mom being in Connecticut. He's looking into attending by video, so thank God for technology. This is a huge loss for him as he's relied heavily on his father's advice and listening ear over the last number of years. Also, Wednesday is my parents' 54th Anniversary, and my granddaughter is turning 10 on Saturday!! I don't think any plans will interfere with Mike's visit though, as she's always with her dad on the weekends. If there is anything, it will just be adjusted for... busy week ahead for me with cards to make, a dinner for my parents, a gift or 2 for the girl, and housework moved to Friday ahead of Mike's arrival on Saturday. I may let the sympathy cards wait a week, we'll see...

How many of you have gone camping in the rain and had a problem getting the fire going?? When you do finally get it going, it's feels like a major victory, right?? I don't think that's happened to me, considering the one and only time I've ever been tent camping, but I'm sure many of you know what I'm talking about. I grew up with wood stoves for heat most of the time though so I know what it is to set a damper and fan a flame. And that's what The Lord's Prayer is designed to do. Along with giving us a template to frame our prayers, it fans the flame for our prayer life in general. We thereby claim the victory Jesus gained for us over sin and death.

Today's message from Pastor Matt takes us to the book of Hebrews for insight --

Hebrews 2:14-18 New International Version

14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them,[a] fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

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This passage reminds us (along with the Jews to whom it was originally written), that it was necessary for Jesus to share in our humanity in order to provide for the atonement of our sins. It also reminds us that since He was tempted just as we are tempted and came through unscathed as we cannot*, He is uniquely qualified to help us in our moments of temptation*. In His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus displayed the power of God and won the ultimate victory over sin and death. It is ours for the claiming as we believe and trust in Him.

One of the major themes of this passage, and really, of the Bible itself, is that there is an Enemy of God, and that he is present and active in this world. But it's important that we notice one thing in particular about this theme. The Devil is never the central character in the narrative. Jesus' life, death, and resurrection sit center stage for the entire time. The Devil would like nothing better than to have the major portion of the "script" for himself, but God doesn't allow for that in Scripture. He's a "supporting actor" at best, but generally speaking, nothing more than a peripheral character whose role only serves to carry the story along, and expand the context of the narrative. For example, he might serve as the "creepy uncle" without whom the central character would not have so many issues to work though. He may or may not even show up in the finished movie, but it's only through his influence that we understand the central character in a deeper way. Likewise, it is only through the exposition of The Devil that we understand Jesus' role more fully.

Skipping back to our title for a second, many of us are probably more used to the traditional wording of the prayer saying, "...deliver us from evil..." It's worth noting that this phrase, as generally used throughout the Bible, is more accurately translated as, "The Evil One.*"

This reenforces the truth that the Enemy, The Devil, Satan, or more accurately, "The Satan"... literally, "the accuser"; exists and that Jesus has won the victory over him.

The Devil, as many of you know, has been at least in the background of humanity's story since the beginning. In the Garden of Eden, he was even in the foreground for a minute. This was the among the first stories we have of human temptation*. The first struggle of good vs evil on the Earth. And what did the Father do after Adam and Eve fell to The Devil's temptation??* He didn't come after them right away with anger, He came looking for them and asked, "Where are you??" It was His character of Love that came first, His character of restoring fellowship with those He loved. Of course, there were consequences for their sin, but that came a little later.

In contrasting Jesus and The Devil, we find several main points to observe --

The Devil is a liar and his domain is darkness. vs Jesus is Truth and Light (Jn. 8:44) (2 Cor. 4:4)
The Devil scatters/creates division vs Jesus focus is on unity (Gen. 3:9-13) (Matt. 22:26-30)
The Devil is a thief and craves attention vs Jesus is a giver and lived a life of self-sacrifice. (Jn. 10:10) for both
The Devil's "calling card" is death vs Jesus gives life (Rom. 6:23)

There are also different reactions to The Devil among different people. Some people just try to "write off" The Devil as an analogy to human weakness*. Others may give The Devil entirely too much credit and become overwhelmed by fear*. Scripture, as we said above, keeps The Devil on the edges, so to speak. He is peripheral to, but a necessary element of, the Main Story, which is Jesus.

The fact remains that The Devil is a liar. If death is his "calling card", then lying is his M.O. (modus operandi). He may either lie to us about how important we are, ("Look at you, you're the boss, the company would crumble without you at the helm. You're King/Queen $#!7), or he might lie about how worthless we are, (Look at you, you're ugly, you're stupid, you're a loser, etc...) Either way, he's an expert at targeting our weaknesses. (He should be, he's been at it long enough!!) He cunning and crafty. He cheats, causing us to cheat others. Wars, violence, destruction, sickness and disease, and finally, death are all in his arena. While God allows for these things to happen by giving us Free Will and allowing The Devil to wander around (1 Pet. 5:8); He is never the source of them*.

Focusing back on our Hebrews passage, there are 5 important things to note --

Verse 17 tells us that Jesus was fully human. This was necessary in order to suffer as we suffer and be tempted as we are tempted. The important thing to realize here is that He was also fully God. (1 Tim.3:16) This is a juxtaposition that is nearly impossible for us to fathom*.
Verses 14-16 show that Jesus never leveraged His power for His own sake. His entire existence on Earth consisted in self-sacrifice, including the setting aside of His glory in the manifestation of Himself as human. (Phil. 2)
Verse 18 speaks of His human weakness in temptation without having fallen. In this, Jesus is sometimes referred to as "The Second Adam". Where Adam fell, Jesus did not.
Jesus' entire life was based in resisting and defeating The Devil. Sometimes we try to "skip ads"* and go straight to The Cross in looking at Jesus' sacrifice. But in doing so, we miss the truth that every person He healed either physically or mentally, everyone from whom He exorcized demons, every sinner He freed from bondage, demonstrated His power over The Devil. His death and resurrection merely "sealed the deal" at the end of it all. The Cross and Tomb were the "touchdown" and "extra point kick" that won our victory over sin and death. God already had the victory, but this was the only way it could be offered to us.
Jesus' death was the atonement for our sin and rebellion. It covered the Jewish Laws of Sacrifice so that it was easier to connect with God. At the same time, it covered for the rest of us as well*. As of that date in history, freedom from sin and the fear of death were purchased for us by Jesus' sacrifice. We need only believe and claim it for ourselves.

The Devil's most powerful weapon is power itself. The lie of power over others, or over ourselves, the power of fear and guilt in some of our Churches*, but most powerful of all is our illusion of power over death*. We fear death above nearly all else as humans, but if we know the Lord, we can gain the confidence of Jesus' victory over death and the grave. We can, as I believe Jeremy's father did this past week, approach death as sacred ground as we become focused on the joy of seeing Jesus on the the other side. Prayer brings God's power into our lives in order that we be able to receive His Truth. We can lay claim to His victory over sin and death in the midst of our weakness.

One final thought Pastor Matt left us with today was that of including the Fruit of the Spirit into our prayers. Thanking God for each and asking Him to help us with each one in turn*.

-- God Bless!!

Footnotes --

He can come through temptation unscathed as we cannot -- only through the help of the Holy Spirit by the victory of Jesus' sacrifice can we even hope to resist the temptations Satan brings.
"... moments of temptation." -- This Saturday with Mike may present some temptation, but we've already agreed to save the "big stuff" for later on when things are more permanently settled. He still has his whole benefit stuff to sort out, then his housing will be stabilized, etc... Continued prayers in faith for God's provision in His timing.
The story of the Garden of Eden and the Fall is one early narrative of human vs The Devil in the Bible. The story of Job is another. A properly organized Chronological Bible actually places Job's story shortly after that of the Garden.
Adam and Eve's temptation -- Some (probably many, actually) have asked the question of why God allowed Adam and Eve to be tempted. I've thought about this in depth myself and came to the conclusion that, if He hadn't, Jesus wouldn't have died for all. (Rom. 6:11, Heb. 10:10, etc.) Another point just brought to my attention by Mike in our conversation yesterday, was that it was the proof and exhibition of Free Will for all humanity. It wasn't just an "afterthought" on God's part to be offered later. After all, Free Will is a requirement of true love. Otherwise, all you're left with is slavery, or robotics, etc... Love without Free Will is nothing more than coercion; it cannot be sincere without a choice. (I'm emailing this thought to Pastor Matt since I didn't stay after the service to talk) Oh, and another thought occurred to me about this as well... Since part of Eve's punishment was painful childbirth, it is likely that she had some already without pain.
"Writing off" the Devil's power as human weakness -- I did a google search of who "these people" would be, and it's called Dualism. Basically the idea that good and evil exist in an endless battle. There may or may not be entities at the head of it all, depending on the individual group. Christianity is considered under this "umbrella" as one with definite entities at the top.
Some who give The Devil too much power -- Pastor Matt cited Christian Comedian Mike Warnke and his book "Satan Seller" from the 80's here. He said that much of that book is lies. I don't know what to think about that. I can only tell you that I've seen Mike Warnke in person and his presentation was very touching and sincere. (Realized later that it was not Mike Warnke I saw in person, but Mark Lowry. I do, however, have the cassette tape of Mike Warnke's testimony. His humor is hysterical and his heart for God is pure.)
God is never the source of trouble -- it was a major teaching in one of my former Churches that, "God allows what we allow" in our lives. If we don't take a stand against The Devil, take the authority God clearly gave us via the Great Commission, then we are going to run into problems. Some people think that God tests us through trials, but that simply isn't true. That's just another lie of The Devil, designed to separate us from God by making us doubt Him. He allows The Devil to wander the Earth so that our Free Will has an option. That's all.
Juxtaposition of Jesus' being fully human and fully God at the same time -- I've come to think about it this way: The partners in a business are in charge over all, right?? So let's say one of them goes on vacation. He's not acting as a business partner during that time, but he still retains the authority of his position. (I know, still "sticky", but you get the idea, right??)
The "skip ads" bit is mine, Pastor Matt simply said, "skip ahead".
Jesus' sacrifice covered for all of us -- Not just the Jews, first off. Secondly, I told you the other week to watch for more insight on forgiveness if you remember -- Here it is, and it's just as I thought, but I searched the internet and asked a former Pastor for input. Jesus' sacrifice was "once for all" meaning that, in that moment, all the sins of humanity were covered as with a huge blanket. Our role as Christians is simply to acknowledge the "blanket" and accept the forgiveness already provided. The continual asking of forgiveness as we go only gets things out of our system and helps us to "feel" forgiven so that we are better able to forgive others.
Power of fear and guilt in Churches -- my own addition here. We all know the places I'm talking about, and they're not just under one set of roofs either... Any Church still stuck in the muck of Legalism vs relationship is guilty here.
Illusion of power over death -- again, my own thought. The song, "Mr. Roboto", by Styx comes to mind here. For those of you who may be unfamiliar, there's a line that talks about "machines to save our lives, machines dehumanize". Definitely something to think about... (listen below)
Praying the Fruit of the Spirit -- my own thoughts on this are that it's a good idea in general, but in specific, I see problems with 2 of them. If you pray for either patience or long-suffering, all you'll get are opportunities to exercise them. ;p In my experience, it's a "safer" thing simply to pray for guidance, wisdom, and discernment.