Last Saturday, in The Perfect Prayer, Part 6, we saw that we must come to the place where we ask God to reveal our sins to us, so that we can confess them, renounce them and repent of them.
Anyone familiar with the Lord’s Prayer knows that “Forgive us our debts…” is immediately followed by another line: “…as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12b NASB). Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to confess your sin and ask for forgiveness than it is to forgive someone else? Up until this point in the perfect prayer, we’ve been asked to do things that can be foreign to our human natures; but now suddenly we are being asked to do something that can be plain … hard! As my late southern-bred mother would say, “Now you’ve stopped preachin’ and gone to meddlin’!”
It is interesting as well to see how this part of Jesus’ perfect prayer is phrased: “…as we also have forgiven our debtors”. In other words, we ask God to forgive us after we have already forgiven those who have hurt us!
Kind of seems backwards, doesn’t it? Maybe it’s just the way it is translated into English?
But no, this idea is stated other times in the Bible, including in the two verses just after the Perfect prayer! “For if you forgive other people for their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive other people, then your Father will not forgive your offenses.“ (Matthew 6:14-15 NASB)
Whoa! Suddenly this forgiveness thing just got a lot more motivating! But wait. Where is the fairness in this? I mean, what about Salvation by Faith?
Let’s remember first of all that our salvation hinges on one thing alone: The blood of Jesus Christ (See John 3:16; 1 John 2:2; 1 John 4:10; and Ephesians 2:8-9). What the perfect prayer is NOT telling us is that if we don’t forgive others, we are not saved.
To better understand this, let’s go to the last supper (See John 13:5-11). Jesus is about to wash Peter’s feet, and Peter objects. Jesus tells him that if he doesn’t allow Him to wash his feet, Peter will have no place with Him. In typical Peter fashion, Peter then tells Jesus to wash his feet, his hands, his head… At which point Jesus says to him: “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet; otherwise he is completely clean. And you are clean.” (John 13:10 NASB). In other words, although we are washed clean by the blood of Jesus, we can still dirty ourselves with sin. Although it doesn’t interfere with our Salvation, this sin will interfere with the relationship God wishes to have with us. It will interfere with His ability to pour blessings out upon us.
Stated more clearing, by not forgiving others, we are, in essence, holding on to sin in our own lives. When we ask God to forgive us our sin, but we refuse to forgive others, we are – hypocritical!
Then there is the damage that holding on to anger does to our own selves. It is said that when we refuse to forgive, it is like we are drinking poison and expecting the one we are angry at to die! In many cases, the ones we are angry at don’t really care that we haven’t forgiven them. Meanwhile, the anger eats away at our own hearts, making us bitter and self-focused. We’ve all been around people who are holding on to anger, and we all know from experience that these aren’t the people we would choose to hang out with!
The only way to find peace after we’ve been hurt is to forgive. Remember: forgiveness doesn’t mean the person didn’t do wrong; but by forgiving, we are trusting God, not us, to deal with that person’s wrongdoing, and all the while we are safeguarding our hearts from the acid of unforgiveness and ensuring the best possible relationship with God.
Why is this line sandwiched into the Lord’s Perfect Prayer?
Because WE need to forgive!
Is it easy?
Not at all. But remember God won’t ask us to do anything He isn’t ready to help us do. So when we pray this line of the perfect prayer, we are in essence praying, “Lord, show me who I need to forgive. Help me to hate the anger inside of me. Give me the desire in my heart to forgive, and then, Lord, because I don’t seem to have forgiveness in me right now, forgive that person … THROUGH me!”
You’ll be amazed at how much better all of your relationships will be!
In summary then, this little line finds itself in the perfect prayer because we NEED to forgive those who have hurt us. I encourage each of you during this upcoming week, to continue praying the Lord’s Prayer daily; but this week, spend special time meditating on this one line: “…as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Ask God to reveal your anger. Ask Him to help you hate it, to want to be free, and to give you the power to forgive. When you do, you will begin to notice big changes in your Spiritual growth!
We now find ourselves winding down towards the end of the perfect prayer; but there are still a couple of vital parts. Please join us next Saturday for, “Do not lead us into temptation… The Perfect Prayer, Part 8.”
In His love,
Lyn
Lynona Gordon Chaffart
Moderator, Author, Acting Director, Answers2Prayer Ministries
(To access the entire published portion of “The Perfect Prayer” mini-series, please click here!)
