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Deliver Us from Evil

I’ve been praying the Lord ’s Prayer since I was a little bitty girl. Over sixty years later I still pray it from time to time. This week as I was meditating on the prayer I started to think about the phrase, “Deliver us from evil.” I examined my concept of being delivered from evil. I began to realize that deliverance doesn’t always look that way in the immediate circumstances. Sometimes it is in the hindsight and reflection that one sees the deliverance. I thought of the following Biblical examples where being delivered from evil came wrapped in various packages that on the outset didn’t look like deliverance.
Sometimes delivering us from evil looks like being sold as a slave by your brothers who betrayed you - Joseph

Sometimes delivering us from evil means a coat left in the hands of our false accuser- Joseph

Sometimes delivering us from evil means being held in a jail cell when you are not guilty - Joseph
Sometimes delivering us from evil looks like God coming in a dream telling us to leave someone alone- Abimelech

Sometimes deliver us from evil looks like an Auntie coming to snatch us from those getting ready to be killed by their murderous grandmother. Josiah

Sometimes delivering us from evil looks like a boat your mother wove from bulrushes and pasted with tar. Moses

Sometimes delivering us from evil looks like a beautiful woman coming to intercept us on the way to commit a murder David/Abigail

Being delivered from evil can look like wise guidance and advice from parents or friends. It can be the Word given by the pastor in the Sunday sermon. It could be the delay in leaving the house for work. I believe we will not know all of the times when we have been delivered from evil. However like David we are responsible when we do recognize when we have been held back from evil. I will pray this phrase with a renewed faith and thankfulness to God as I ask to be delivered from evil.

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