Rescue Us

“…but rescue us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:13)

I have divided verse 13 of Matthew 6 into two parts for discussion and meditation. The second part follows the first: “Don’t let us yield to temptation [which leads to bad outcomes]. Instead, Father, rescue us from the Enemy who seeks our destruction!” Let’s consider this rescue request which is part of the model prayer Jesus taught his disciples.

First, this is a deliberate request for intentional action: rescue us. As we walk the path of life, which is often filled with opportunities, or temptations, to deviate from the straight and narrow, we are taught to pray to not yield to those temptations. Instead of yielding, we pray for rescue.

The need for rescue is real. We cannot stick our proverbial ostrich heads in the sand and pretend that because we don’t see temptation at the moment, then it’s not coming. It is coming. But the rescue doesn’t happen automatically. Jesus taught his disciples to intentionally pray for rescue.

Secondly, we are asking the Father to rescue us. We can’t rescue ourselves! We need his divine, complete, all-powerful, all-knowing, all present-help! The recorded history of him rescuing his people is quite impressive, to say the least! While we might think we can take care of this matter, or we live like we will take care of it, we can’t. We need the Father’s help.

The Lord’s Prayer is a model prayer that is based throughout its content on relationship between the believer and the “Father who is in heaven.” The disciple is to worship the holy Father with whom the disciple is in relationship. The disciple is to pray for the advance of the Father’s work on earth, doing so as a reflection of the Father’s ultimate desires regarding heaven and the future. The disciple is taught to ask for the provision of daily, physical needs such as food. And to pray to make sure that unforgiveness is not blocking the relationship with the Father or with others.

Another piece that is emblematic of this relationship is that the believer is to ask for help from the Father in regards to common, human tendencies that can reflect poorly on this relationship.

It is interesting to me that the Lord’s Prayer is filled with daily, common requests, all of which sound like what we hear in preacher’s prayers (“Father, you are holy and we worship you!”), or sharing in a small group (“I know I need to forgive Tom, but it’s hard!”), or in prayers around the dinner table (“We thank you for the provision of this food, yet again.”) But this relationship request for rescue seems to be less commonly verbalized, at least in group or public settings. Why is that? Perhaps because to recognize it, much less admit it, we would be announcing that we are weak and in need of help? And we wouldn’t want anyone to think we are weak Christians! Goodness, just wait till that news gets out! It’s fine to let others hear us verbalize worship of the Father, requests for sustenance, and the occasional reflection on needed forgiveness, especially from the Lord. But to intentionally and deliberately pray for rescue from temptation to sin! Gasp! The rumor mill will start in earnest! Did you hear what Sharon prayed the other night? I had no idea…!

Third, we are asking him to deliver us from the Enemy. While we might need deliverance from ourselves, or wrong thinking, or a host of things, and we probably do need help with those from time to time, this prayer is not about that. This prayer is about deliverance from the Evil One “who seeks to work us woe”, said Martin Luther in A Mighty Fortress is Our God. And I’m confident that Jesus knew that this Enemy is not playing around. He is all in, obsessive and compulsive, attempting to disrupt the Jesus’ followers and their work and unity as a Body. He is focused on seeing us slip up and fall down, rather than stand firm.

Notice, the injunction to rescue is not just to help us who have wandered off on a wrong path somewhere. This prayer request is not based on us being the subject of a spiritual Amber Alert because we wandered off and ‘got lost’, and need to be found and rescued from our absent-mindedness or inattentiveness. No. We have an Enemy who is working hard against us. We need the Father to rescue us from him and his aggressive, evil ways.

The Enemy’s strategy is to get us to yield to temptation. Doing so will cause us and those around us to experience all kinds of grief and despair. But thankfully, we don’t have to yield. The Father wants to rescue us from the One who seeks to destroy us. 

Our task is to pray regarding our vulnerability to temptation, and to ask the Father to rescue us from the Enemy’s plots, grip, and lies. The Father stands ready to help us. Let us let Him.

“Father, I remember the words of the hymn writer, ‘Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.’ Lord, how could we possibly let that scenario creep into our lives?! We know it’s because we have flesh that craves our own way and seeks our own momentary satisfaction. Taking a cue from Adam and Eve, we know that we are vulnerable to yielding to temptation. Observing what happened to them, we need your rescue! Please, Lord, may your rescue be forthcoming, even when we are not aware of the extent to which we have strayed! We ask you sincerely in Jesus’ name!”