Evening, February 9

Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings

"Lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil [or, the evil
   one]."

  Luke 11:4

   What we are taught to seek or shun in prayer, we should equally pursue
   or avoid in action. Very earnestly, therefore, should we avoid
   temptation, seeking to walk so guardedly in the path of obedience, that
   we may never tempt the devil to tempt us. We are not to enter the
   thicket in search of the lion. Dearly might we pay for such
   presumption. This lion may cross our path or leap upon us from the
   thicket, but we have nothing to do with hunting him. He that meeteth
   with him, even though he winneth the day, will find it a stern
   struggle. Let the Christian pray that he may be spared the encounter.
   Our Saviour, who had experience of what temptation meant, thus
   earnestly admonished his disciples--"Pray that ye enter not into
   temptation."

   But let us do as we will, we shall be tempted; hence the prayer
   "deliver us from evil." God had one Son without sin; but he has no son
   without temptation. The natural man is born to trouble as the sparks
   fly upwards, and the Christian man is born to temptation just as
   certainly. We must be always on our watch against Satan, because, like
   a thief, he gives no intimation of his approach. Believers who have had
   experience of the ways of Satan, know that there are certain seasons
   when he will most probably make an attack, just as at certain seasons
   bleak winds may be expected; thus the Christian is put on a double
   guard by fear of danger, and the danger is averted by preparing to meet
   it. Prevention is better than cure: it is better to be so well armed
   that the devil will not attack you, than to endure the perils of the
   fight, even though you come off a conqueror. Pray this evening first
   that you may not be tempted, and next that if temptation be permitted,
   you may be delivered from the evil one.