Trial

Matthew 6:13 - And do not bring us to the time of trial.

The regular wording is "lead us not into temptation." But that has always confused me. Why would a loving God lead us into temptation? That makes no sense. It's like saying, "Please don't play any tricks on us!" Maybe gods did that back then but that's no reason to think that way now.

So looking at the Greek I come in with this. Trial in this sense is God testing us. We are asking that God not test us too much. Or at all really. Probably because we are not up to it! Ever. There will always be a test we fail. We all have that one thing that we just can't get rid of. That one attitude or habit. Do not test us because we will fail.

This is why when we do pray to God for patience, acceptance or love we will always be faced by those testing our patience, our acceptance, our love. Those are very courageous prayers indeed. The Scots Confession recognizes this. There is a line that says once one is baptized then the real struggle begins!

However, how can we think about this positively? Barb encouraged me to do this with the word defensive, let's try it now. Rather than asking God not to test us, maybe we could ask God to remind us of her presence in our trials? I like that much better. Trusting God to be with us rather than praying for an easy life. In Jesus' day this prayer may have made more sense. Life was much tougher then. Now, we have the opposite problem - we are much more comfortable and isolated from our fellows than they. We need more affliction not less - well okay speaking for me anyway.
B