We pray for the ability to resist evil and for deliverance. Read Matthew 6:13. Today is the last day of Vacation Bible School. What a joy it is to pour faith and love into the lives of children who are eager to demonstrate God’s gift of love within them! Tonight I will be sharing the importance of prayer and using the Lord’s Prayer as a guide to teaching. One part of the Lord’s Prayer is “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil". This portion of the prayer can be called "prevention and prescription". A few weeks ago, I helped my son landscape the front yard of his new house. A few days later, I broke out with some large bright red spots in my abdomen area, and I began treating what I thought were chiggers. After two weeks, the infected area was more painful and the red spots were still very red, so I went to the doctor. The diagnosis was shingles with the chastisement, “You should have gotten the shingles vaccine.” My response was, “I did.” My goal was prevention, so I took the proper steps, yet I still found myself with shingles. That day I began taking medication to rid myself of the painful sores. In our walk with God, we pray for two-fold prevention. First, we pray that we will not face temptation, but if tempted, we would not fall into sin. Second, we pray that we will be spared from those who plot evil against us. What a great day every day would be if we remained holy and faithful in every way and did not have to suffer at the hands of another. Prevention is awesome, but there are times we break God’s law or something bad happens to us. That is why we need the prayer of deliverance. If we fall into sin, we need to be delivered. If we find ourselves a victim of someone else’s evil actions, we need to be delivered. I am grateful for God’s healing power to deliver us from sin and evil. Let’s pray.



Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name;

thy kingdom come;

thy will be done;

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation;

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

the power and the glory,

for ever and ever.

Amen.