Pam Padgett ... teacher
Matthew 6: 9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 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.
While reading this passage of scripture today, verse 13 stood out to me, and I recalled something that happened a few years ago. I had taken my dogs for a walk in our neighborhood, but forgot to take a plastic sack to pick up after the dogs. A young girl, approximately 9 years old, yelled at me, telling me I should clean up after my dogs.
Shortly after I returned home, the doorbell started ringing, over and over. I looked out the saw this girl, and another girl about the same age. At first I wasn’t going to answer the door, but they kept ringing the doorbell repeatedly.
Anger started rising in me. I opened the door and stepped out onto the porch, intending to start yelling, but nothing came out of my mouth. The girl again told me in a scolding way that I should pick up after my dog. Finally, words came out of my mouth … but not angry words. Very calmly I told her that I usually pickup after the dogs, but had simply forgotten to take a sack that day. Then I saw that they had left a sack with dog droppings on my porch. Instead of saying anything about this, I simply took it to throw it away. The girls walked off with nothing more being said.
I was shaken by these events, and also puzzled about how I had handled this so differently than intended, so turned to God and asked what had just happened? I heard “I have kept you from evil”
Often when I think of being delivered from evil, I think of being delivered from evil in other people. But in this case, God kept me from evil my flesh wanted to bring forth. My intention had been to deal in anger, but God kept me from doing this.
Additional comments: In addition, the spirit in the little girls was very bad, scolding me and then repeatedly ringing the doorbell, causing so much noise in my house that I was holding my ears. And when I stepped out onto the porch, the first little girl seemed ready to "fight". But God delivered me from this evil spirit as well as from my own anger. As the calm words came from my mouth and I dealt quietly with the sack they put on my porch, the girls turned and left. There was no fight.
I was reminded of the following ...
I John 4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.