Forgive Not...Not Forgiven

Matthew 6:9-13


Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.                                 For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever Amen. 

As we progress through the Lord's Prayer we see that Jesus models to us, that we are to ask God to forgive us as we forgive others. We need to think about this in spiritual terms and not in physical terms. We struggle to see sin the way God sees sin. It is very hard for us to view lying equally with murder. It is just a mindset that truly brings to life the Word of God when He declares that His ways are not our ways. We certainly see degrees in sin. We have a moral compass that declares to us one lie bigger than another, one sin more horrific than another, but God views them all as sin, they are all a departing from holy and righteous guidance. Simply put they all require the blood His Son shed on the cross. So Jesus says to you and I, that in our most intimate time with the Holy Almighty God, we should request from Him that we be forgiven with the same measure as we forgive. Probably one of the most scariest thoughts you will ever imagine. You saying to God, You will put your own forgiveness on how you forgive others. This pretty much determines that you will forgive. Have you ever thought about what it means to forgive. According to Webster's it literally means to stop feeling angry or resentful toward (someone) for an offense, flaw, or mistake. In the Greek it means, "to let go." So we see that we are asking, excuse me, we are pleading with God to let go of our sins the same way we let go of the wrong done to us in life. This matches lines up pretty well with the scripture because after all we are told in Matthew 18:35,  "So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses." I will let you read verse 25 -34 and see what we are talking about. Forgiveness is not optional, we must do it if we are to be forgiven. Do you think it is easy. Certainly not? That is why Christ Jesus must forgive through you. When you think it is difficult, think about this, Jesus Christ perfectly innocent and perfectly created came to this earth and walked on this earth as a man. He was beaten, whipped, spat on, cursed at, punched ridiculed and many other  horrible things. The prophet Isaiah says that He was beaten so badly that He was not recognizable as a man. Yet He says to His Father, forgive them father for they know not what they do. They were not even seeking forgiveness, yet Christ Jesus died to provide forgiveness. Listen sometimes this is hard, sometimes this feels like someones is driving spikes into your gut; however, freedom  comes when we let it go. It is great we we open our hearts to a whole new world. When we let Jesus mold and shape us especially in the area of forgiveness we draw so close to Him because we are so like Him when we are forgiving.

For your own sake let it go. Release the shackles and the chains of unforgiveness, experience freedom like never before. 

Reaching for Him,

Brother Big Daddy

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