Day 12
Week 2: The Model Prayer
OUR NEED FOR FORGIVENESS AND TO FORGIVE
SCRIPTUREMatthew 18:21-35 OBSERVATIONThis is not a passage about salvation but rather a passage about forgiveness in relationships. Just as children of God we do things that require forgiveness from God on a daily basis, so too we are in relationships where people do things that require us to forgive them. How we respond to those people can free God or tie His hand in our forgiveness. UNDERSTANDINGPeter in asking Jesus the question of how many times we should forgive makes an assumption that many of us make – we assume that all offenses are against us and that we never offend anyone. If he thought that he was the offender do you think he would have asked, “How many times should we forgive? Seven times?” Truth is Peter was being generous because the Rabbis of the day said that three times was sufficient. So Jesus tells the parable to help us see that we are both offender and the offended one and how we respond to the those who offend us determines how God will deal with us when we offend Him.The reality of the whole story is that if we cannot forgive people who offend us then our hearts are not in the right place (righteous) and so God cannot forgive us when we confess our sins to Him and ask for forgiveness. When our hearts are humble and repentant we will gladly forgive our brothers and sisters, but where there is pride and a desire for revenge then there is no real repentance, and God cannot forgive.It is not enough to receive God’s forgiveness, or the forgiveness of others, we must experience that forgiveness in our hearts so that it humbles us and makes us gentle and forgiving towards others. The servant in the story was not humbled by the forgiveness of his debt, he was just glad to be “off the hook” and that showed in his treatment of those who were in debt to him. LIFE APPLICATIONForgiving others in order to fully receive forgiveness is an important part of prayer and God responding to our requests. Jesus reminds us that when we are praying and there is an issue of unforgiveness we need to stop praying and go and deal with it. (Mark 11:25)Take some time today to ask God to show you the areas where you have sinned against Him and then ask Him to forgive you.Also take time to verbally forgive the people who have sinned against you. Say out loud...