If God doesn't tempt us, why does the Lord's Prayer petition Him to "lead us not into temptation"? Matthew 6:9-13 Jesus instructs us:

“This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’&quot;

But James 1:13-14 says:

When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.

If God doesn't tempt us, why does the Lord's Prayer petition Him not to lead us into temptation?
The phrase is part of a couplet, so it needs to be read in that context.


  Lead us not into temptation,
  but deliver us from evil.


The phrase does not assume that God might lead us into temptation. Instead, it assumes that God does deliver us from evil. The couplet gives the impression that temptations will come, but prays that God delivers us from them. The New Living Translation attempts to make this more clear:


  And don’t let us yield to temptation,
  but rescue us from the evil one.


Through other Scriptures, we know that God does not tempt anyone (James 1:13), and we also know that God will always have a way out when temptation comes (1 Corinthians 10:13). A proper systematic theology will look at all the Scriptures that mention a subject to help interpret the more difficult or confusing passages. In this case, other Scriptures make this clear, that God does not tempt and does deliver us from temptation. This is exactly what the prayer asks: when temptation does come (because it will), God save us from it.