Bible
Study: Isaiah 55, 10 to 11. Matthew 6, 7
to 15).
There are
two things we can never avoid: the fact that people will offend us and the fact
that we would offend people. No matter how we try to protect ourselves, the
actions of others consciously and unconsciously will bring us pain.
We can
only forgive if we are able to accept our imperfections. And prayer is one exercise
that makes us come to terms with our nothingness. To pray well is to fully
examine our conscience and admit our faults. And the moment we acknowledge our
inability to meet the mark despite our best efforts, we become sympathetic to
those who try to please us yet keep offending us.
This is
why in teaching us to pray, Jesus added: “Forgive us our trespasses and we forgive
those who trespass against us.” Jesus knew it would be very easy to ask God for
forgiveness without first examining our conscience, we pray for forgiveness but
somehow we still believe we are better than the rest of the world, that we
cannot make mistakes, that we are always right.
So by
adding the clause “as we forgive those who sin against us”, Jesus intends to
send us a message: we cannot say we are perfect if there are still persons we
are yet to forgive. If we have not forgiven, then we have not examined our
conscience very well, if we are yet to forgive, it means we are just talking to
God, not really praying.
Let us
Pray:
Lord
Jesus, bring me to an awareness of my limitations that I may learn to forgive
as you did on the cross. Amen.
God bless you. Good morning. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is
well with you.
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