Time of Trial

I used to prefer the "save us from the time of trial" translation of the Lord's Prayer to "lead us not into temptation," but over the past year or so I have had trouble praying "save us from the time of trial." I remember a sermon I heard in the midst of a particularly hard spot of the Ordination Exploration Process; the preacher referred to a line in Ecclesiasticus that went something like this: "My child, when you come before the Lord, prepare yourself for testing." That took my breath away for the rest of the service; I had been so sure that of all the difficulties I was having meant that I was not cut out to serve God as a priest, and yet here was a small section in Scripture asserting that testing was part of the journey.

Now, it seems arrogant and wimpy (to me) to ask God to "save us from the time of trial"; trials and tests are part of being Christian. (It would be nice if it could all be smooth sailing, though!) Whereas the way I read "Lead us not into tempation" is that we are asking God's help to overcome the temptations and tests, not to avoid them altogether.