LEARNING DAILY

 

Matthew 6:12, “And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”   Jesus

 

I felt I had wrongly been removed from a coaching position when teaching and coaching in Iowa.  I chose to be angry at the superintendent of schools to the point of crossing the street when seeing him coming down the street so I would not have to speak to him.  I spoke about it to a pastor friend who told me I might need to go ask him to forgive me.  My reply was there was no way I was going to do that because I was not wrong.  I was a new Christian and I talked to my pastor friend after a meeting with a prayer group I was in.

 

 Does that sound like you at any time?  Do you remember when someone wronged you and you had the opportunity to forgive the person or not.  What did you do and when?  Many people would say don’t forgive.  Why should people push their way into our lives, leaving us bleeding in their path and then expect us to forgive everything as if nothing went wrong.  Have you felt this way?  An then we come to this point in the Lord’s Prayer, the part we might want to quickly say and go on.  Did Jesus really know and understand the situation?  It is interesting that Jesus went from “giving us our daily bread” to “forgive us our debts” (Some translations use the words “sins” and “trespasses for debts.).

 

Christians are justified by faith; Jesus died for all our sins when on the cross.  Because of this some believe that they do not need to ask for forgiveness.  Others believe that once they are saved, they are perfect and do not sin anymore.  The problem is Christians still sin, becoming dirty by it.  Even though Christians have been forgiven, we still fail.  The only people who are able to pray “Our Father” are those who have gone through Jesus Christ’s salvation.  He tells us to ask for forgiveness when we fail or sin. 

 

Prayer must be concerned with our sins and Christians must be willing to forgive those who have harmed us.  This is so important that Jesus added commentary to this part of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:14-15.  He said, “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”  In Matthew 18:21-35, Jesus adds to this teaching more thoughts on the true forgiveness.  You might want to take time to read the parable of the Unforgiving Servant.

 

Martin Lloyd-Jones calls Matthew 6:12 and Matthew 18:21-35 examples of “relational forgiveness”.  He writes, “If we are going to know oneness with the Lord in our daily relationship with Him, we cannot hold grudges against others.  I know someone hurt you at some time!  However, the only way to heal the pain that does not seem to heal itself is to forgive the person who hurt you.  Forgiveness heals your memory as you change your memory’s vision.  Forgiving the person who harmed you is like cutting out a malignant tumor from your life.  You set a prisoner free… and you discover that the prisoner you freed was yourself.”

 

Jesus said that those who live because God forgave them must imitate that forgiveness.  If your hope is that God will not hold your faults against you, you forfeit your rights to hold the faults of others against them.  The unforgiving Christian is a hypocrite!  Forgiveness is not natural; it is supernatural because you just cannot forgive in your own strength.  I challenge you to pray each morning that you will be able to forgive the person that hurts you that day – forgive them ahead of time.  God loves to forgive us and He loves it when we forgive others.

 

So, what happened with me.  Are you curious?  After saying there was no way I was going to ask forgiveness for something that was not my fault, I found myself in his office one day after school.  It took a few weeks but there I was.  It was hard but through some tears, I asked his forgiveness for feeling the way I did about what had happened.  It must have been meaningful because through some tears he asked for me to forgive him as well.  And, yes, a weight I did not know I was carrying lifted from my shoulders.

 

Forgive – just as you are forgiven!  God has unconditionally forgiven us through Christ.  Choose to forgive, despite your feelings, and trust God to help you do so.  In this prayer we are taught to not only seek God for His forgiveness, but to reach out to others in forgiveness. 

 

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