“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” (Matthew 6:13). To the extent that we are not possessed by a spirit of malevolence, as a rule we all strive to make choices that will maximize our happiness, or, at the very least, minimize our unhappiness. A temptation is nothing more or less than a notion of how we might bring about these goals. If we are ignorant and inexperienced, we may choose to follow after one or another of these tempting ideas. It might even seem in many cases as if we are making the right call. At the very least, we won't know for sure that it won't be good for us until we've given it a try. Then again, some of us who aren't ignorant so much as stubborn and stupid may keep trying to wring happiness out of wickedness despite dozens or hundreds of examples from personal experience that this particular experiment always fails, no matter how much or how little we alter any of the parameters or conditions. What makes it especially hard is sometimes things that are bad for us in the long run nevertheless bring us short term pleasure, just as things that are ultimately for our good can nevertheless bring us passion in the short term. But we don't have to rely on our own wisdom with its proven track record of shortsightedness and self destructive tendencies. We can instead pray to be led by our Heavenly Father. He always knows the best path for us to navigate the complexities of short and long term sacrifices and successes. We may not always perfectly grasp this path. Maybe we think we know where He is leading us and take our eyes off on Him and miss some important cues. Maybe it seems like He's leading us right into a brick wall at full speed and we panic and jump off the path because we think that He doesn't know that He is doing. But while we may sometimes doubt our Father's intentions or fail to factor in an appropriate time scale for when we ought to start seeing the benefits from following Him, we do know for a fact that almost every time we have chosen our own path instead of His, it has inevitably made our lives worse. Temptations are always going to be popping in and out of our head like swirling mists of darkness but I do know from personal experience that if we truly plead with the Lord to lead us and then keep our eyes fixed on His glory, then we will not be led into registration.
