The Seventh Petition

In the Greek text, this petition reads: "Deliver, or preserve, us from the evil one, or the malicious one." This clearly refers to the devil as the embodiment of all evil, as though the entire substance of our prayer should be aimed at our greatest enemy. He is the one who opposes everything we pray for: God's name and honor, God's kingdom and will, our daily bread, a clear and joyful conscience, and every other blessing we seek. So at the end, we gather it all together and say: Dear Father, help us to be free from all this misery. And yet, brief as it is, this petition encompasses every form of evil we encounter in the devil's domain: poverty, shame, death, and all the wretched suffering and heartache that exist in endless supply on this earth. The devil is not only a liar but also a murderer (John 8:44), and he never stops trying to destroy our lives, venting his fury on us whenever he can cause bodily harm or injury. He breaks the neck of many, drives others into madness, drowns some, and pushes many more toward suicide and other horrifying acts. This is why our most essential task on earth is to pray against this arch-enemy, because without God's support, we would not be safe from him for even an hour.

From this you can see once more how God wants us to bring everything that touches our earthly lives to Him in prayer, and how He desires that we look for help from no one but Him. He placed this petition last for good reason: if we are to be guarded and freed from all evil, His name must first be honored in us, His kingdom must take root in us, and His will must be carried out through us. Only then will He preserve us from sin and shame, and from everything else that harms or hurts us.

In this way, God has laid out before us every need we could ever face, so that we have no excuse for failing to pray. But the real power of prayer lies in learning to say "Amen" to it as well, which means refusing to doubt that our prayer will truly be heard and answered. Prayer is simply the word of unwavering faith: it doesn't pray on a whim, but trusts that God will not deceive us, since He has promised to grant what we ask. Where that faith is absent, there can be no genuine prayer. This is why those who pray while not daring to say yes from the heart, who cannot conclude with confidence that God will answer them, are caught in a dangerous delusion. They remain in doubt and ask themselves: How can I be so bold as to assume God hears me? Am I not still a wretched sinner? And so on.

The reason for this doubt is that such people look not to God's promise, but to their own deeds and personal worthiness. In doing so, they despise God and effectively accuse Him of lying, and so they receive nothing. As St. James says, "Let him ask in faith, nothing doubting; for he that doubts is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord" (Jas 1:6-7). Notice how deeply God cares that we approach Him with confidence, trusting that our prayers are not wasted and treating them as something of real weight and consequence.