I remember when I was 16 and learning to drive.  When I got my license I felt that, since I had logged quite a few hours behind the wheel and since I drove more or less the same roads most of the time, I pretty much had this driving thing nailed.  Then I pulled out in front of another driver on a residential street because I’d stopped being so diligent about looking at everything—everything—around me.  For several minutes I had to wait for my heart to stop racing.  I could hear the driver’s horn echoing in my head long after he had gone.  I thought I was a better driver than I was, got a little cocky, and it nearly got me into a wreck.

The same cockiness can creep up on us spiritually too.  Let’s face it: relishing the presence of God, basking in His goodness and light, offering ourselves to His provision, confessing and being forgiven—it can go to our heads.

That arrogance can lead us to take chances we shouldn’t because we think we’re stronger than we are, or more mature than we are, or immune to temptations that once would have thrown us.  All sorts of problems can come our way when we think we’re better, stronger, more mature than we really are.  We forget to stay dependent; we forget to abide in Christ (John 15).  We rush on out ahead of Him and think more highly of ourselves than we ought.  Next  thing you know, our lives are a wreck.

Maybe your situation is different than mine; maybe this part of our prayer—lead us not into temptation—means something different to you.  So be it!  If you feel led to take a different tack with this part of our reflection, go for it!  This shouldn’t be a hard and fast formula—let it fit your own life and circumstances.

AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION

And now, having confessed our sins, received of Your abundant mercy, and entered into the freedom of grace, shield us against the pride of thinking ourselves better than we are.  Give us grace to remember how great was our sin and how prone (and how eager) we are to fall into it again.  May we remember Your great love that separated our sins from us as far as the east is from the west, as far as the heavens are above the earth.  “How great the Father’s love for us!”  Let us walk by faith that fine line between not thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought and marveling at the stupendous heights to which we have been called—to think we are now the very children of God!

Do not throw us—or let us blindly plunge—into waters too deep for us, but let us always cast ourselves upon Your everlasting arms.

[Where are you most prone to get “cocky” about your own abilities and forget God?]