"And lead us... And deliver us..."

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.

And God leads us...

Just stop for a minute and think about what that means.

God leads us. He's there in front showing us the way, the Good Shepherd guiding and guarding, His staff and rod at hand to comfort and to correct. His watchful eye always and only looking out for your welfare, leading you out of the dream of trials and tempatations - whatever would cause you to stray from Him - to think that you are separated, or ever could be separated, from Him.

And God delivers us...

Think: God actively, purposefully, delivers us from every evil - every lie - about our true nature, our true will, our true identity. God delivers you from whatever would cause you to stray from your true purpose, weaken your true calling, or try to kill off your true likeness to Him.

He delivers you from sin: the mistake of thinking that you can enjoy a lie.
He delivers you from sickness: the mistake of thinking that you can suffer from a lie.
He delivers you from death: the mistake of thinking that a lie can be fatal!

Jesus called Satan - evil - "a liar." A liar would trick you into believing his lie is actually the truth. But it never is. It never has any power. It can only "suggest" its lie. And therefore, it can only seem to be true (i.e., real) if you believe the lie!

But in this verse of the Lord's Prayer, Jesus awakens you to understand that you never have to be tempted to believe evil's lie. Never. Instead Jesus awakens you to the fact that God only ever leads you to, delivers you to, Truth.

And Truth is the antidote - the cure - for every lie. Truth always exposes the lie for what it is. Truth, understood, immediately annihilates the "power" of any lie, no matter how big and scary the lie seems to be - whether it calls itself sin, sickness, or death. It is still just a lie. Without power. Without reality. Without effect. Why? because sin, sickness, and death are evil. They are never from God. And so they can never survive exposure to God's Truth any more than the night can survive the sunrise.

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."
And God never leads us into the temptation to believe in - or experience - any evil, any "lie," but already - right now - truly delivers us wholy, holy, healthfully, blissfully, vigorously, at-one with Life!