Stepping Stones For Victorious Christ Centered Living #18: The Eternal Principle of Forgiveness

 

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Jesus: Matthew 6:14

God's Eternal Principle of Reciprocal Forgiveness

Tucked away in the middle of Jesus's secret-service foundational principles is a potent step on a Christ-Follower's journey. A lot of secret stuff goes on inside us when we choose to forgive.  And the opposite is true regarding unforgiveness. And Jesus, in this passage, and elsewhere in the Bible, emphasizes the importance of forgiving other people when they sin against us. One place He highlights this is the Lord's prayer: "Forgive us our trespasses as we for give those who trespass against us."  Or you can say it like this: Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. You can see this. Can't you? He really does make His point as He emphasizes this reciprocal factor of mercy. Praying like this is like asking, "Lord, I want you to forgive me, but I really want to be forgiven the way I forgive." WOW! Listen to this being said in the opposite way: "Lord, if I don't forgive others, don't forgive me." The Lord would honor this kind of praying with one word.  "Okay."  Yikes! 

Disconcerting

Now, I don't know about you, but this is a bit disconcerting to me: Indeed, this has been so disconcerting that,  when I pray the Lord's Prayer, when I am alone in my prayer closet, for example, and I come to this part, I sometimes pray, "Lord forgive me  of my sins, and give me the grace to forgive myself, and forgive those who sin against me. Please, give me the ability to forgive the way you want me to forgive." Amazingly enough, the Lord has answers  this in the affirmative, and I am able to be forgiving. It's a wonderful thing to experience the miracle of being able to choose to forgive.  Guess what? Now it's easy to pray "forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us."  Why? Because, with God's power and help, I get the stuff to be enough. I can actually choose to forgive.

I challenge you, today, to choose to forgive. I urge you to asked the Lord to deliver you from nursing a grudge. I encourage you to pray, "God, give me the power forgive like Jesus." And He will. Then you can pray "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us," and have no worries because your are free to forgive. 

SoJourner