And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

Luke 22:40

We even pray it in the Lord’s Prayer, “…and lead us not into temptation.”  But, if we are honest, that’s not what our typical prayer is.  Instead of asking for God to protect us from entering into temptation, we instead seek God’s strength to not sin when tempted.  And then, when we succumb to sin, we wonder where God has failed us.  Now let me say that God is certainly strong enough to give us strength to not fall into sin, but it’s interesting to see that Jesus calls for something even better – a power to not fall into temptation.  We like being tempted.  We like to push the edge.  We like to get close to sin and not fall in.  Somehow we are convinced that this is the stronger course, that a strong Christian is one that can resist sin even in the midst of temptation.  But Jesus seems to present a different picture of strength – one who is wise enough to not be tempted in the first place!

Running from temptation isn’t a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.  And it is exactly what Jesus asks us to pray for – that we may be strengthened to not enter into temptation.  It takes one level of strength to be tempted and not sin, but it takes both strength and wisdom to not be tempted in the first place.