2207. About an angelic mental Image in the Lord's prayer

About an angelic mental image, it has also come to my notice during the praying of the Lord's prayer, when one prays "lead us not into temptation, and deliver us from evil" [Matt. 6:13, Luke 11:4], that by a certain mental image temptation and evil is rejected, namely in my cruder mental image it was thrown back, if you will, to the back of my head, and what remains is angelic, namely, the goodness of the Lord.

About the Lord's goodness countless angelic mental images are taking shape-concerned with how good results from man's affliction. Yet the affliction comes from man, from his evil, which carries its punishment within it, while the good is the Lord's.

This shows to some extent what the image of rejecting the notion of evil is, even if it is only a crude one that I saw, because it was observable, and rather rapid. In it there was something of indignation that the evil of affliction or temptation should be thought to come from the Lord. 1748, 6 June.