Heidelbergian Children's Catechism (age 8- 10 years)
Lord's Day 52
We have now come to the final petition of the Lord’s Prayer, which Christ Himself taught us. It says, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” Another way to say this is to ask God not to allow the evil one to separate us from Him. This “evil one” is the devil, who is also called Satan. In Paradise he already tried to make Adam and Eve disobedient. And they even listened to him! They did not obey God, who had told them not to eat from the forbidden tree. When they did eat, sin entered this world. This sin is now in our hearts as well. God promised Adam and Eve that He would save them. The Messiah would take the place of Adam and Eve and He would be obedient. He would make things good again. God’s people were looking forward to the coming of the Messiah. But the devil was also waiting. Satan wanted to destroy the Messiah when He came. Sure enough, as soon as the Lord Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Satan tried to have Him killed. so that God’s plan would fail. Later Satan attempted this many more times. Once he tried to make Jesus sin. This made Jesus very angry and the Lord Jesus told Satan to leave Him alone. When Jesus’ work on earth was done He went to heaven. This made Satan furieus. because it was too late to make evil plans against Christ. Satan was no longer allowed to be in heaven. So Satan thought up another plan. Jesus was now far away, but God’s children were still on earth. Satan planned to rob God of his children in order to win over the Lord. Satan is still trying to do this today. He gives us the impression that life without God is much more fun. Satan wants us to believe that he would give us much more freedom to do things. We don’t need to go to church every Sunday for Satan, either. What Satan is trying to do is very evil! Therefore we should pray: “Lord, do not all ow Satan to make me turn away from you.” The Lord will listen to you. You must stay very close to the Lord! The Lord’s Prayer ends with the word “Amen.” To say “amen” means that we know that God has heard our prayer. But there is more. It also means that we believe God the Father is our glorious king. We believe that all power comes to us from God alone. We believe that God has really listened to us. The glorious meaning of the word “amen” is that the kingdom and the power and the glory belongs for ever to our God. Amen.