By Justin Johnson
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one
There are multiple layers of authority in our society. The Federal, State and local governments enforce rules, regulations, laws and statutes. There are also rules governing your conduct at work or where you live by your apartment building or neighborhood homeowners association. The idea of authority is not a foreign concept to us, nor is it new.
When Jesus walked the earth, Judea was governed by a blend of local Jewish religious governance and Roman Imperial authority, with Rome having ultimate control over the region. Caesar, the title for the emperor, exercised authority over the entire empire, with Roman kings in place ruling over parts of the various areas they controlled, including Judea. The Jewish Sanhedrin was the supreme religious and judicial council of the Jewish people – having authority over religious laws and some civil matters, composed of elders, scribes and priests from two major groups known as the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
With all these levels of authority, Jesus spoke to another level of authority that went deeper than the Romans collecting taxes or the Sanhedrin deciding if an action violated the Sabbath. Jesus called out the fact that your conduct displayed who was truly the authority of your life, God or the evil one. A declaration that “Jesus is King”, was a scandalous statement by the early church because it was considered an offense to their Roman overlords, their Jewish authorities and the powers of darkness in the spiritual realm.
Even today, that statement carries the same weight. Making a decision to accept Jesus as the king of your heart and live according to His commands changes you in a way that no police, judge or court can.
Awaken is not about behavioral change – it is about our allegiance changing. As we encounter and submit to a holy God who loves us so much that He sent his one and only son, Jesus, to die on a cross so our sins could be forgiven, we can be in right relationship with him, now and forever.
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one”, reveals that as we trust God to be the ultimate authority of our life, we can also trust in His leadership of our lives and we can ask God to deliver us from sin that so easily entangles. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us (Romans 8:11) and it is by His power that we can overcome every trial or temptation in our life and be delivered from evil.
Continuing to trust God, choosing His ways and enduring in the faith is an important theme throughout Scripture, so let’s conclude our month of prayer and fasting by praying for Middle Tennessee (ourselves included) that we would all be set free and that we would all yield, with joy, to His leadership in our lives.