And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (ESV) Matthew 6:13
It may be common to each one of us to feel the following at the end of the day: it would be nice if I could avoid shouting at my spouse/children/subordinate etc; it would be nice I could speak to so and so with little more gentleness and sweet words. This kind of feelings would run through our mind at the end of every day. We often recognize how difficult situations exposes our weakness, character flaws and areas where we need to overcome the fruits of the flesh. Some of these areas such as anger, bad temper, harsh words, lying etc. may be repeating very frequently in our lives. One of the keys to overcome this kind of issues is to pray for spiritual protection over our lives before we start our day.
The probable meaning this verse is that “If it be thy will do not permit us, weak as we are by nature and prone to sin, to enter into situations which in the natural course of events would expose us to temptation and fall (cf. 26:41), but, whatever be thy way with us, deliver us from the evil one.”(Hendriksen, 240).
Here, the Greek word that used for temptation also can be translated as test. We need to pray that a situation may not arise in our lives to test us. We also need to pray that if any situation emerges to test us, we should be able to handle them in a godly way by expressing a godly character. Devil orchestrates triggers in our lives through people and situation, sometimes even through strangers and unexpected ways. We need to pray that we may have strength to overcome devil on a daily basis. Consistent Prayer brings the power of God in our lives to overcome and protect ourselves from the test/temptation of devil by producing godly character and fruit of the Holy Spirit. Pray for protection from temptation and pray that you may be an overcomer, especially pray for victory over fruit of the flesh.