Daily Good News – The Heart of the Lord’s Prayer

Jul 28, 2015 1968

 

And forgive us our debts,
 As we forgive our debtors. (Matthew 6:12)

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, Jesus taught them what we today call the Lord’s Prayer. We often recite it without stopping to think about the teachings of Jesus contained within it.

In the heart of that great prayer are the words: And forgive us our debts,
 As we forgive our debtors.

At the end of the prayer, Jesus saw it fit to highlight and explain only one part of it, and it was precisely those words. Jesus emphasized that:

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (Matt 6:14-15).

This is not about what someone else must do. It is about what you and I must do.

When we forgive others as we have been forgiven, it is then that we truly “hallow thy name” – or as the Common English Bible has it, “uphold the holiness of your name.”

When we forgive others, it is then that God’s kingdom has come, into our broken relationships, in anticipation of that great day when it will come in fullness of glory.

When we forgive others, it is then that God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. Who do you need to forgive today?

 

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