FORGIVE US

Matt.6:9-12 – NLT – Our Father in heaven,
may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth,
as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need,
and forgive us our sins,
as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

Jesus taught us to ask for forgiveness and to forgive others in our daily prayer. Forgiveness is the entrance way into the kingdom of God. It is only by forgiveness that comes by faith in the blood of Jesus that we can come into God’s presence, without forgiveness we live our lives in the darkness that comes with being separated from the Lord. It is quite awesome that we can come to Him day after day and He forgives us and welcomes us into His embrace. Here is how Andrew Murray describes this part of the Lord’s Prayer.

“As bread is the first need of the body, so forgiveness [freedom] is for the soul. And the provision for the one is as sure as for the other. We are children – but sinners too; we owe our right of access to the Father’s presence to the precious blood and the forgiveness it has won for us. Let us beware of the prayer for forgiveness that becomes a formality: only what is sincerely confessed is forgiven. In faith, let us accept the forgiveness as promised – as a spiritual reality, an actual transaction between God and us; it is the entrance into all the Father’s love and all the privileges of children. Such forgiveness, as a living experience, is impossible without a forgiving spirit to others: as forgiven expresses the heavenward relationship of God’s child, so forgiving expresses the earthward. In each prayer to the Father, I must be able to say that I know of no one whom I do not heartily love.”

I love this statement, “as bread is the first need of the body, so forgiveness [freedom] is for the soul”. All of us know that we need daily provision from the Lord. We spend much of our waking hours pursuing finances which represents the bread or provision for our needs. In the same way forgiveness is our spiritual bread. It is not only how we come to the Lord in the beginning, it is also connected to how we walk with Him day after day. John said we had to walk in the light, in fellowship with other Christians through forgiveness, so that the blood of Jesus will forgive our sins. No wonder Jesus taught us to pray, “forgive us our sins,
as we have forgiven those who sin against us”.