Forgiveness

"Forigve us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors" (Matthew 6:12).

If you were asked to write something that millions of people would read over and over again for 2000+ years, what would you write? You would most likely write what was most important to you. I believe that when Jesus taught his prayer to his disciples he was showing them his priorities. Here are seven of the most important things to him for us:

1. That we acknowledge God as our Father
2. That we respect and honor His character
3. That we do His will
4. That we seek our sustenance from Him
5. That we ask for forgiveness and give forgiveness
6. That we don't go willy nilly into temptation
7. That we are delivered from the evil one

I find it interesting that forgiveness makes His top seven. This makes sense since one of our primary needs as creatures who have "fallen short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) is forgiveness. Think of the story of the paralytic. When he was lowered from the roof, Jesus didn't immediately heal him. Jesus' first act was to acknowledged that the paralyzed man's sins were forgiven (Matthew 9:2-7). Our need for forgiveness is primary if not primal.

But it's not forgiveness alone that we need. We need to extend forgiveness. I think I mentioned this earlier--but giving forgiveness is one of the hardest things we can ever do in life. There are so many "buts" involved: "But she hurt me first", "But he was wrong", "But the cuts from this wound still hurt today", "But they ruined my life", "But it's not fair", "But how will she ever learn her lesson if I forgive her?"

Forgiveness is probably the most Christ-like thing we will ever do. We will give something to someone who does not deserve what we can give. To do this, I don't think we minimize the hurt. Forgiveness is not "well, it really wasn't a big deal." It WAS a big deal. Our hurts are real and our capacity to actually forgive minimal. So we turn to the one who first forgave us and ask for His forgiveness in us to be so powerful that it overflows to the people in our life who we need to forgive.

And when we do this we are living the kingdom of heaven. Heaven stakes out its territory in the heart that forgives.

"Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit” (Peter Ustinov).