How can I pray for protection against evil?
It's a valid question, and one that Jesus answers in The Lord's Prayer
A quick apology: I messed up my scheduling, so that’s why this is coming out so much later in the day!
“But rescue us from evil”
It’s an important piece of The Lord’s Prayer and not one that I think gets much discussion in areas where I see The Lord’s Prayer being talked about.
From a translation perspective, it is possible to translate the Greek as “evil” vs “evil one” which can open up a whole other can of worms.
For today, though, I want to focus on the translation “but rescue us from evil.”
…
I have two girls and, one day, I started having this conversation with my oldest about what to do if someone tries to kidnap her.
And, as morbid as this may sound, I started having to wrestle with the idea of having the conversation with her, at 4 years old, that there are going to be people in her life who may try to take advantage of her.
And during that talk with her, I was almost in tears. My heart was praying for her to be protected from evil.
But, Jesus doesn’t tell us to ask for protection from evil…but to be rescued from evil.
And so I have to do my best to teach her to know how to protect herself, but to also know that God will always be there to rescue her from evil in some way.
And I fully understand this is a tricky topic and a hard conversation to have…but, for today at least, I want to encourage you that Jesus encourages us to pray for rescue from our most difficult situations.
And we believe that God will rescue us.
My prayer for today
Our Father, be with us in our struggle and suffering. I am so inadequate to save, protect, or rescue anyone from evil…but I know you are more than capable. Spirit, move in and through each one of us to be the rescue from others when the opportunity arises. Amen.
Remember
While we can definitely pray for protection…The Lord’s Prayer reminds us to continually pray for rescue as well. Take a minute to ask for God to be your rescue from whatever evil may be plaguing your life today.