Lead us not into temptation

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen" (Matthew 6:13)

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray,  He tells them to pray - "lead us not into temptation." because You, God, our Father have all the power and glory. But in James 1:13 it says

"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither does he tempt any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." (James 1:13-14)

Jay Carty, in Counter Attack, Taking Back Ground Lost To Sin, defines this as "Eclairs in the refrigerator", or in the example, cookies in the cookie jar.

Here's an example from the book... let's say that you decide that you want to start working out. Good. So, the first thing that you do is go to the store and purchase your favorite snack food... as a reward. You put them on the highest shelf and promise yourself that you will only have a few as a reward after you work out.

What will probably happen is - you'll end up going to the cabinet and snacking on this treat more than you thought when you came up with the reward plan. (Some of you have greater will power than others, so note the word probably.)

This applies to many situations in our life. For some - it's toying around with the triggers that will cause us to watch porn, or over eat, or do whatever that "thing" is that will cause us to slip into sin. We place ourselves there and then wonder why we fall.

It's important to note that we have responsibility in this. The lead us not into temptation prayer is what we should be praying before we are engrossed in the temptation. We should be vigilant and struggle and fight before it gets to that point.

After all, aren't we tempting God if we willingly walk into an "evil" situation, then say - God! Help me???

The question is... why did you go there in the first place? In order to experience the kingdom, power and glory of God, we need to stay present in the kingdom where we can experience God's power and glory.

We should struggle to pray before we get into the situation, then fight with all we have not to fall... and God will be faithful to help us.

Romans 12:1-2
The Message (MSG)
 1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.