The Lord's Prayer: and do not lead us
what an unusual way to make a request of Father. Jesus asks us to ask negatively. perhaps He assumes we are already doing the Proverbs 3:5, 6 thing, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight" (meaning successful). perhaps He assumes we are already trying to love Him with all of our hearts and souls and minds. perhaps He expects that we will love our neighbors as ourselves. after that it's all petty i guess. while walking the dog tonight i was thinking, wrongly, that maybe the verse was parsed this way, Lead us, not into trials... but the "not" in the Greek is modifying the verb and not the noun, and its not negotiable. that "not" "MH" in Greek is a verb modifier only. so i had a much better blog post on this verse. but my insight is not good.
why doesn't Jesus have us pray for strength in trials? why not pray to be lead into ever greener pastures? instead we are asked to pray to not be lead into trials. is there a positive way to read this?
there's really only two ways to learn things. the hard way and trusting someone else's hard way. since i was a child i've decided to do things against instruction from those wiser than me and refused to learn from their wisdom and experience. this is the search for the exception that plagues us humans. we'll play the lottery because maybe this time we'll have the 20 millionth winning ticket. we'll smoke cigarettes because we heard of someone who lived till he was 100 years old despite smoking since he was 12, so smoking probably won't harm us either, despite all those people walking around with oxygen masks. we will pursue a physically intimate relationship before marriage because not every marriage that starts out that way ends in divorce. we want to be the exception, which always leaves us in trouble and wishing we had trusted the Bible or our parents or our elders. the hard way of sin results in regret. who seeks regret? when we pray "lead us not" i think we acknowledge how hard headed we are. its another line to bring us to humility before Father and remind us of our dependence on Him.
and do not lead us into trial...
why doesn't Jesus have us pray for strength in trials? why not pray to be lead into ever greener pastures? instead we are asked to pray to not be lead into trials. is there a positive way to read this?
there's really only two ways to learn things. the hard way and trusting someone else's hard way. since i was a child i've decided to do things against instruction from those wiser than me and refused to learn from their wisdom and experience. this is the search for the exception that plagues us humans. we'll play the lottery because maybe this time we'll have the 20 millionth winning ticket. we'll smoke cigarettes because we heard of someone who lived till he was 100 years old despite smoking since he was 12, so smoking probably won't harm us either, despite all those people walking around with oxygen masks. we will pursue a physically intimate relationship before marriage because not every marriage that starts out that way ends in divorce. we want to be the exception, which always leaves us in trouble and wishing we had trusted the Bible or our parents or our elders. the hard way of sin results in regret. who seeks regret? when we pray "lead us not" i think we acknowledge how hard headed we are. its another line to bring us to humility before Father and remind us of our dependence on Him.
and do not lead us into trial...
Comments