"This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.' " —Matthew 6:9–15 (NIV)
Lead Us Not Into Temptation:
These words of the last petition of the Lord's Prayer come from our lips with greatest fervor. We have turned to prayer in a desperate hour to plead for deliverance and we ask that we may be taken out of the path of temptation.
There is no doubt in the mind of any one who is in trouble what the words of this petition mean, and there is rather little doubt, at least at first, what we wished to be saved from.
Temptation has sly ways, however. After we have all the gaps plugged. Temptation begins to whisper fairy tales into our ears, trying to get us to open up at least one of the gaps. Temptation hints that the diagnosis we made when we took the first of the Twelve Steps was not quite right. Why not take just one now and then? And why not ask to be delivered from the temptation of taking more than one? But then, three would be better, why not never more than three?
Or, Temptation may make a more direct assault. We're as big as God is: we can step off that cliff!
Well, maybe not quite; but we are capable of handling ourselves, and there is no reason why we cannot go down to the water's edge and wade around a bit! We forget that for us there is no shallow water.
Temptation stays with us, trying to build up our confidence, trying to make us believe that we have been cured, scoffing at the old troubles. Temptation slips in at the side door when we become proud and satisfied. It is the greatest to those who have persisted in remaining at the threshold of evil by always having that "Some day!" in the back of the mind. The most persistent temptation we have is the temptation to change the diagnosis. When we turn our backs firmly against that temptation we are likely to stay out of trouble.
Self love is a great pitfall, and the source of the great sins. Many of the temptations here seem rather innocent. But they lead, step by step to denial of the Supreme Power, to exaltation of the self.
For us, deliverance and temptation go together, and one of the most important evils that we seek to be freed from is temptation. Drink has become so much a part of our lives that we associate virtually
every act with it. The result is that the idea of drink, the urge to take a drink or to go to get a drink constantly pops into the mind for no apparent reason. The Devil here is experience.
As our sins may be forgiven if we are truly contrite, so may we be delivered from the evils we have created for ourselves, by being sorry for our misdeeds, by undertaking to make good for any injury we have done to others, and by striving not to offend again. We are bound to take positive action for the right and the good, and we are bound not to allow ourselves drift with our inclinations. We place
ourselves in the hands of the Supreme Power and follow the lead we receive from that power, away from temptation, away from evil.
[* Reprinted from a series of eight editorial articles written in 1944 and first published in the Cleveland Central Bulletin an Alcoholics Anonymous newsletter.]
Thursday, August 7, 2008
The Lord's Prayer...Week 6
"This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.' " —Matthew 6:9–15 (NIV)
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us:
No one who has completed his moral inventory can pass over this petition lightly.
First, what are trespasses? Any act contrary to the moral law, a neglect of duty, an injury or wrong to another person, is a trespass. "Moral" is used here in its proper sense as pertaining to action with reference to right and wrong and obligation of duty. It refers not only to things we have done but also to things we have neglected to do.
Some of our trespasses are easy to recognize. We have no difficulty in seeing our guilt in them. Others may be more difficult, partly because we have spent so much time in justifying and excusing our
acts or neglects that we have come to think of justification as answering the accusation. It is precisely at this point that our moral inventories must become fearless. Every excuse or justification must be challenged as being in itself evidence of guilt.
We should examine our conduct in detail and specify each trespass. This is important. The Lord's Prayer does not excuse us from responsibility for our acts. Nor is it a license for repetition of wrongful acts. We are bound to make reparation for harm that we have done, and we are bound to cease doing harm.
Our prayer is made daily. So should our inventories be made daily. In our prayer, we should keep in mind the things the inventories have revealed, so that we may make progress in correcting our faults.
"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." This petition is conditional. No one who is not willing to forgive can expect to be forgiven. No one who harbors hatred, malice and resentment in his heart can expect to find peace.
This condition is of particular concern to us, since so many of us suffer through resentment, self pity, jealousy, self love. It has been the experiences of all of us who try to control resentment that most of the causes of our resentments are found to be either imaginary or petty, and that they actually have done us no real harm. When we can rid ourselves of these resentments, we shall make progress.
Honest inventory often will reveal that in those cases in which we have suffered in our dealings with others, some of the fault, much of the fault, or even most of the fault has been ours. But even in those few instances in which we have suffered genuine injury at the hands of others, we are bound to forgive. Certainly we gain nothing but harm to ourselves when we allow resentment to fill our minds and
consume our energies. When we forgive, we heal our minds.
[* Reprinted from a series of eight editorial articles written in 1944 and first published in the Cleveland Central Bulletin an Alcoholics Anonymous newsletter.]
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us:
No one who has completed his moral inventory can pass over this petition lightly.
First, what are trespasses? Any act contrary to the moral law, a neglect of duty, an injury or wrong to another person, is a trespass. "Moral" is used here in its proper sense as pertaining to action with reference to right and wrong and obligation of duty. It refers not only to things we have done but also to things we have neglected to do.
Some of our trespasses are easy to recognize. We have no difficulty in seeing our guilt in them. Others may be more difficult, partly because we have spent so much time in justifying and excusing our
acts or neglects that we have come to think of justification as answering the accusation. It is precisely at this point that our moral inventories must become fearless. Every excuse or justification must be challenged as being in itself evidence of guilt.
We should examine our conduct in detail and specify each trespass. This is important. The Lord's Prayer does not excuse us from responsibility for our acts. Nor is it a license for repetition of wrongful acts. We are bound to make reparation for harm that we have done, and we are bound to cease doing harm.
Our prayer is made daily. So should our inventories be made daily. In our prayer, we should keep in mind the things the inventories have revealed, so that we may make progress in correcting our faults.
"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." This petition is conditional. No one who is not willing to forgive can expect to be forgiven. No one who harbors hatred, malice and resentment in his heart can expect to find peace.
This condition is of particular concern to us, since so many of us suffer through resentment, self pity, jealousy, self love. It has been the experiences of all of us who try to control resentment that most of the causes of our resentments are found to be either imaginary or petty, and that they actually have done us no real harm. When we can rid ourselves of these resentments, we shall make progress.
Honest inventory often will reveal that in those cases in which we have suffered in our dealings with others, some of the fault, much of the fault, or even most of the fault has been ours. But even in those few instances in which we have suffered genuine injury at the hands of others, we are bound to forgive. Certainly we gain nothing but harm to ourselves when we allow resentment to fill our minds and
consume our energies. When we forgive, we heal our minds.
[* Reprinted from a series of eight editorial articles written in 1944 and first published in the Cleveland Central Bulletin an Alcoholics Anonymous newsletter.]
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