200. The Lord combats for a Man in Temptations. The Lord alone in a man struggles in temptations, and the man does not struggle at all from himself, nos. 1692, 8172, 8175, 8176, 8273. From himself a man cannot struggle at all against evils and falsities, because that would mean struggling against all the hells, which no one except the Lord alone can subdue and conquer, no. 1692. The hells fight against a man, and the Lord fights for him, no. 8159. The man struggles from the truths and goods, and thus from the knowledges and the affections thereof which are with him; but it is not the man that struggles, but the Lord that struggles through them, no. 1661. When in temptations, the man thinks that the Lord is absent, because his prayers are not listened to as they are when he is not in them; nevertheless, the Lord is then more present, no. 840. In temptations a man ought to struggle as from himself, and not to hang down his hands, or to expect immediate help; but he ought nevertheless to believe that help is from the Lord, nos. 1712, 8179, 8969. Otherwise the man cannot receive a heavenly Self (proprium), nos. 1937, 1947, 2882, 2883, 2891. The quality of that Self (proprium), that it is not man's but the Lord's with him, nos. 1937, 1947, 2882, 2883, 2891, 8497. Temptation serves no purpose, and is productive of no good, unless the man, at least after the temptations, believes that the Lord has fought and conquered for him, no. 8969. Those who place merit in works, cannot struggle against evils, because they struggle from Self (proprium), and do not allow the Lord to combat for them, no. 9978. Those who believe that by temptations they have merited heaven, are saved only with difficulty, no. 2273. The Lord does not tempt, but He liberates, and introduces good, no. 2768. It appears as if temptations were from the Divine, when yet they are not, no. 4299. How the petition: Lead us not into temptation, is to be understood in the Lord's Prayer; from experience, no. 1875. The Lord does not concur in temptations by permitting them, according to the idea of permission entertained by man, no. 2768. In every temptation there is freedom, although it does not appear so; but this freedom is with man interiorly from the Lord, and by virtue of it he combats and desires to conquer, and not to be conquered; without that freedom he would not do this, nos. 1937, 1947, 2881. The Lord effects this through the affection of truth and good which has been impressed on the internal man, the man being ignorant of it, no. 5044. For all freedom belongs to affection, that is, to love, and is according, to its quality, nos. 2870, 3158, 8987, 8990, 9585, 9591.