Week 5 — Thursday: The Petition For Pardon
Matthew 6:12, 14-15
Jesus teaches us that forgiveness ought to be a part of our daily prayer, and He gives us two essentials for knowing the victory, joy, and peace forgiveness brings.
1. We are to ask God to forgive us of our sins. “Forgive us our debts,”
Daily we need to bathe because it doesn’t take long to get dirty and stinky. The same is true spiritually. Daily we need to come to God for cleansing as we acknowledge and confess our sins. 1 John 1:9 promises, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” This is the assurance God gives us whenever we come to Him asking for His forgiveness and cleansing.
Even right now, ask God to search your heart and reveal any sin you may need to confess to receive His cleansing (Psalm 139: 23-24).
2. We are to forgive those who have sinned against us. “as we also have forgiven our debtors”
Jesus makes it clear we are obligated to forgive those who sin against us. This is not an option! In verse 15, Jesus warns, “But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” Unforgiveness keeps us bound and imprisoned in the darkness and torment of an embittered heart (Matthew 18:21-35). We must forgive others if we are to know the freedom and fullness of God’s forgiveness toward us.
Who is someone in your life today that God is asking you to make the choice to forgive so that you may be set free?
Every day we ought to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us!”
—CONTRIBUTED BY RICK THOMPSON, PASTOR OF CONGREGATIONAL CARE—
Christine Pence
October 6, 2023 at 4:46 pmSorry yesterday was super super busy and I wasn’t able to get to this until now I apologize so much I feel bad but I’m going to talk about praying to God to forgive us of our sins and forgiving others yes I do pray to God constantly to forgive me I repent daily I also ask God to help me to forgive those who have hurt me the person that comes to my mind quite often is my apartment manager and how she has not been good to us residents is here and how I’m a situations with like a oven and stove that Sparks and we don’t have maintenance right now and I don’t have any way to cook I do have a couple other ways and a friend is trying to help me out with something but it’s just hard because I’m stuck at home and I’m a renter and I don’t have finances to fix the stove and oven I informed management and management just said you know use oven cleaner and so did former maintenance before former maintenance left and so it’s been cleaned like three times and my stove at the top part three times the other day a few days ago and my oven sparked at one time about 2-3 weeks ago and I need a new stuff yes I do I don’t have money for it in my lease it is their responsibility to fix this not ours and it makes me mad and I need a new air conditioner and air conditioner heater and they won’t replace it until it goes out God forbid if it goes out 100 plus degree heat or 90° heat because it is like a sauna here so I struggle with anger towards my manager because of those things and other because as a disabled resident here who does all my paperwork who pays my rent on time and in full every single month who drives my best of my ability to follow these rules that she has applied to us here I struggle in my heart with forgetting her and I asked God to help me with that and then I asked God to help me forgive myself because sometimes I loathe myself and I hate that about that myself I don’t want to hate myself because I get angry at people for hurting me and because I have an apartment manager that disrupts my way of life and possibly her corporate office could be partially responsible for this who knows I’ve heard endless complaints about my fellow tenants but that’s the person that comes to mind because I have no one else to help me no family no friends to help me with the situation and I I called some resources but there’s no resources available so in my heart I’m like God I’m mad at this person and I want them to get right with you and repent of their sins for they are an idolater and not a Christian and let people know that the Christians know that they don’t believe in Jesus Christ or Christianity and that they want nothing to do with it it’s hard for me but I don’t wish ill harm on the person I wish they would repent of their sins and come to South agent in Jesus Christ and give up their idolatry and their evil wicked ways but I do pray for this person regardless and I had a friend months ago who said Christine you sound like you hate this person I said I don’t and they said they felt the holy Spirit was talking to him about me and said that it sounded like I hated them because I know that nobody can go to heaven with hate in their heart so I told the person I don’t hate them which I don’t I just don’t care for the person because I know the management doesn’t care for me as their tenant and others that don’t care for management and that she doesn’t care for them either but that doesn’t mean I can’t forgive and pray because that’s what God calls us to do please keep me in prayer of the struggle and this is an excellent teaching from Christ Jesus about forgiveness thank you all and God bless