WE NEED FORGIVENESS BIG TIME!

    In (Matthew 6) Jesus has been talking about prayer and getting them answered. Jesus taught them to not be hypocritical in their prayers (Verses 5, 6); to not be repetitious using many words in flowery platitudes and phrases (Verses 7, 8); and then gave them a model prayer in which one of his emphasis is on forgiveness, (See verse 12). God considers forgiveness of others as paramount.

    The thought of being forgiving to others reminds me of a cute story. A church lady that we will call “Mrs. Stern & Gossipy,” was accidentally not invited to the Ladies outdoor garden party after church. They had overlooked her. They asked the pastor to call her and have her come. The Pastor as the spokesperson for the ladies, asked “Mrs. Stern and Gossipy” to forgive their mistake and they would love her to come. Here was her reply, “It’s too late for that. I already prayed and asked the Lord to rain on your party!” This Christian did not understand forgiveness. We can all be like that to a more or lesser degree.

    Now let’s look a little closer at Jesus teaching on forgiveness in this text, (Matthew 6: 14, 15): “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

    Jesus’ thoughts in approaching God in an acceptable manner of prayer are that we must release others in forgiveness?? before hand!
  
   We have a hard time with this. Perhaps at one time or another we have all gone to God with unforgiveness in our hearts (which Jesus says is sin). We may do this because we have given unforgiveness a low priority in our lives and so we give little attention to it. Or a person has hurt or offended us so badly we don’t want to forgive or we feel they shouldn’t be forgiven as far as we’re concerned.
  
   So we enter into prayer asking God to help us but sin is blocking our prayers. And we wonder why our prayers are half answered or not answered at all. This shows us that forgiveness must come to others before approaching God. It must be “more” than thinking or saying it last minute and off handed. It must be sincere and we must follow through with actions if we can, providing the offender will let us.

    Here’s something that perhaps you’ve never thought about. Did you know that forgiveness is an area where you and I can forgive sin! Now before you get into a quandary, I know that the Bible says, “Who can forgive sin but God alone?”

    Yet the truth is that God has given you permission to forgive and release others from the sins that they have committed against you. Read closely again (Matthew 6: 14, 15)…

 “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

    When you forgive others of offenses toward you or your family, (regardless of there response back and no matter how cruel the actions were,) you then release yourself to get your prayers answered.

    Remember as I close that Jesus said in this Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”  Again, note our personal forgiveness toward others is past tense, “as we also have forgiven…” meaning we forgave before we prayed. God forgives us our indebtedness to him as we forgive indebtedness to others. Let’s get busy right now and begin to work at forgiveness. If you do, watch God begin to release answers to your prayers!

 Pastor Jim