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Summary
- Jesus told his disciples, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation” (Matthew 26:41), and put “lead us not into temptation” in the Lord’s Prayer.
- Short prayers cover the first pull, late nights alone with a screen, temptations of the body, anger, money and status, a hard decision, a fall, a recurring temptation and a friend who is being tempted.
- Traditional prayers are quoted from Hapgood’s 1906 Orthodox service book (Great Compline), the 1928 Book of Common Prayer and the 1888 Catholic Manual of Prayers.
- Jesus answered each temptation in the wilderness with a verse from Deuteronomy (Matthew 4:1–10).
- James 1:13 says God “tempteth” no one, and 1 Corinthians 10:13 promises “a way to escape” with every temptation.
- A temptation that has become an addiction needs real help alongside prayer: a doctor, counselor, support group or pastor.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Genesis 39:12; Psalm 51:10; 119:11; Matthew 4:1, 4, 10; 6:13; 26:41; Luke 22:32; 1 Corinthians 10:13; Galatians 6:1; Hebrews 4:15–16; James 1:5, 12–14; 1 John 1:9). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. The Office of Grand Compline, pp. 152, 155. https://www.ponomar.net/data/hapgood.pdf
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. Collects for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, p. 114, and the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity, p. 214. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
- A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, prepared and published by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1888. “For the Tempted and Afflicted,” p. 168; “Against Lust,” p. 296. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. https://988lifeline.org/
- Samaritans. “Contact Samaritans.” https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/
