Deliver Us From Evil

"...deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." (Matthew 6:13)

After a tragedy like the one that befell us on monday, along with the grief and shock often a sense of fear follows. What about my kids in school? What about the workplace? What about the grocery store? We feel helpless, traumatized and terrorized.

Jesus uttered the words quoted above in response to his disciples request to teach them how to pray. I take comfort that the Lord tells us to pray for deliverance from evil. Jesus would not have told us to pray this if there were no hope that God would indeed hear our prayer and answer. Rather Jesus told us to pray this way because the kingdom, power and glory belong to God alone. That means the power to protect is in God's hand.

We do not understand why God has allowed this evil. And we know that evil occurs around us. But there is hope and there is comfort that in taking refuge in the Lord, trusting in him, committing our path to him and crying out to him for deliverance and protection that He is indeed a strong tower against the foe. He calls us to be strong and courageous; and not to shrink back from faith and trust. In times like this we need to run to Him and not away from Him.

Let us lift our prayers humbly before him to protect our loved ones.

Our prayers go out to the families of the victims in monday's massacre and all the students and faculty of Virginia Tech. We pray for comfort, love, peace and healing.