Overcoming Problematic Praying

Forgive us our sins the same way 
we forgive those who sin against us: 
 Jesus

The Most Famous Prayer In The World

There are millions of people who have, or do, pray The Lord's Prayer. Or as our Catholic brothers and sisters would say, they pray the "Our Father." There may even be billions praying this prayer,  given that the organized church reportedly has about 2.3 billion people as a part of its family. It's potentially the most well known, and memorized, scripture anywhere. It  may even rival John 3:16 for the top spot of well knownness or familiarity.  This could be true because it gets prayed, in its various forms, over and over and over again. Millions of people pray it at least once a week on Sunday morning. It also could be true because, when Jesus disciples asked Him to "Teach us to pray," He told them, "Pray like this." It almost sounds like a command decision on Jesus part, therefore, many obey this most famous prayer in the whole wide world.

The Potentially Most Spiritually Problematic Part of The Prayer

Now, when we consider the prayer, in its entirety, sadly, many people pray it so rapidly, and without authentic reflection, that they blow through it like a freight train barreling down the tracks. Many times very little consideration is given to the gravity of the words being spoken to the Creator of the Universe. These words Jesus gives us to pray, in today's web blog,  potentially can be the most spiritually problematic for our eternal state of being, and it can be problematic regarding how God tells us He will forgive or not forgive you or me. It's heartbreaking to consider how people set themselves up for spiritual harm in their flippant interaction with God. 

"Be Careful What You Pray For."   

In my spiritual journey, I have learned a very important truth regarding prayer.  We would do well to be careful regarding the things we are praying for, if we really believe that God hears us loud and clear. I mentioned harm, a few sentences ago,  that we do to our spirituality by not paying attention to exactly what we are praying in our prayers. Just what is this request here? Play close attention now. For it can be prayed many ways.  Here are three ways:

A Presbyterian would pray: "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."

A Methodist would pray: "Forgive us our tespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."
A Modern Way: "Forgive us our sins the same way we forgive those who sin against us."

Hmmmm?   For what are we praying?  We are praying, to God,  to please forgive us of our sins in the same way we forgive those who commit sins against us.  REALLY? Let us think about this for a moment. As we pray to our Father in Heaven, when we pray this part of the Lord's prayer, we are saying to God the following: "Hey God will you do me a favor? I want to be forgiven. Please, God, forgive me.  By the way, God, be absolutely sure you forgive me in the exact same way I forgive the people who hurt me or who sin against me."  YIKES!  BE VERY CAREFUL regarding the things for which you are being prayerful. Some people praying like this love being forgiven, but they are some of the most unmerciful, unkind and unforgiving people around. When they stand before God, someday, they are going to be forgiven as they have chosen to forgive.

Jesus Tells A Whole Story About This

Check out Matthew 18:21-35. Jesus told one whole story about this just to make His point. He made it clear to Peter that forgiveness should be done 70 X 7, when people sincerely ask us to forgive them,  if we truly want to be free and forgiven.  Go ahead and read it! Don't take my word for it. Listen to Jesus tell the story.  The context is about how we are expected to forgive and how  God forgives people. You see, there was this one guy that owed and astronomical debt. He could have been punished severely, or so the story goes. He could have been placed in torment, but he cried out for mercy, and though the debt was very real, his superior completely wiped out the debt. He forgave him every penny. Yet, almost immediately after receiving this grace, this forgiven man went to a man who owed him nearly nothing by comparison, and he raged against him to pay the small debt owed. The man did exactly as this forgiven debtor had done, and he asked for forgiveness, but he gave this man NO forgiveness or mercy. Well, to make a long story short, the Master found out about this unforgiveness from other people. What do you think happened? Because the man didn't forgive, his master decided to punish him after all. His debt was no longer forgiven, and then we get these words from Jesus own lips:

"This is what my Father will do to you

if you refuse to forgive your brothers

and sisters from your heart."

A Personal Story

Let me close with a personal story: I have a person in my life with whom I have had some conflict, and the conflict was very hurtful. It resulted in my heart being broken. I remembered this Bible story I just told you; therefore, I decided to forgive the person and do everything in my power, with God's help, to choose to forgive. I also thought about this Lord's prayer request we are blogging about today. I could not, initially, earnestly pray that I wanted God to forgive me the same way I was forgiving; therefore, I modified the prayer because I want to live God's way, and no other way. I prayed, "Father, I come to you to be forgiven, please give me the grace, not only to be forgiven, but to forgive the way Jesus would have me to forgive," Day in and day out I prayed this way, and when I prayed the Lord's prayer, I prayed, and still do, similarly.  I pray "Forgive me of my sins, and give me grace to forgive the way Jesus would have me to forgive," And God has answered this prayer in better ways than I could have ever imagined.  Now, I can honestly pray, "Forgive me of my sins the way I forgive." I can do this because the Lord has transformed to me to forgive completely, and this sets me free. It sets me free to sleep. It sets me free to let go of the pain and let God live powerfully through me. It sets me free to be more merciful than I could have ever imagined, given the pain and darkness I had felt prior to deciding to forgive.

Now the other person still is unforgiving, and the other person still intends to never make things right.  The other person has made this abundantly clear. I have reached out to them myself, and through others to see if the amends can be made.  The other person will simply not do it; yet, they pray the prayer, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."  May God have mercy on their souls. My point is that the circumstances have not changed, but God has changed me, and when we forgive the way God wants us to forgive, there is freedom in our spirits, freedom in our souls and freedom in our bodies.  Why? Because God has revealed to me the powerful truth of forgiveness. And when we know the truth, the truth sets us free.

Let's don't let our praying be problematic, but let God use it to transform our lives and set us free. Then, when the Lord sets us free, we will be free indeed.

Y'all be blessed today, especially today.

SoJourner