Unlimited: Remember To Pray For Forgiveness
Aug 23, 2021 1259
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors (Matthew 6:11–12).
Does it ever occur to you that you are more anxious about the “give” than the “forgive”? Does it ever happen… that you pray that God would give and forget to ask that God would forgive? And yet, is not this last as deep a need? Yes, a deeper need than the other?
Ah! that a man should have all earthly things given him, and his sins not forgiven, would be a poor gift. Yet a man who should be deprived of all earthly things and go starving into the other world, yet with his sins forgiven, would be rich and might rejoice. Let us not forget as we go on praying for what God has to give, to ask still more earnestly that he would forgive us our sins…
Don’t forget to pray for forgiveness.
You have noticed surely, that after completing this simple prayer, and before going on to speak of other things, Jesus takes up again one of the thoughts of the prayer; and which one is it? Something about God’s name being hallowed, or his reign coming? Something about daily bread? Something about temptation, or evil? No: it is this one; this one thought he repeats… For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you, and if you forgive not, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you. – John A. Broadus
Reflection: Do you ask God to “give, give, give” so much that you forget to pray for forgiveness? And do you forget to forgive others? Why do you think forgiveness plays such a central role in the Lord’s Prayer, so much so that Jesus repeated it immediately afterwards for emphasis?
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