The Heart of the Father is Forgiveness
Greetings,
This week we will be building off of the message from Sunday 6/21. Pastor Matt spoke on The Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6:12, “forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us”.
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The Heart of the Father is Forgiveness
Have you ever been hurt by someone and thought, “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forgive them”? Maybe someone betrayed your trust, said something that wounded you, or did something that left a lasting impact. Forgiveness can be a very hard process and one that we may want to avoid.
We can very often be reluctant to forgive others, but can you imagine if God was reluctant to forgive us? Jesus’ prayer in Matthew 6:12 guides us to ask the Lord to “forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us”. Jesus then follows this in verse 15 where He says, “if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins”. Jesus lays out this truth, how can we receive forgiveness if we will not forgive others?
In Matthew 18, Jesus uses a parable to speak on forgiveness. The parable depicts a servant who owes an unpayable amount to the king, yet the king is merciful and forgives the man’s debt. The servant then has his fellow servant imprisoned for a much smaller debt that was owed to him. The king is furious with the servant and asks him, “Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?”
It is not up to us to handle every situation or to forget when others hurt us. But it is our job to give it to the Lord and to allow Him to handle it. We must forgive others, just as the Lord has forgiven us for an unpayable debt.
Bible Verse
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” 1 John 1:9 (NIV)
Reflection Question
What makes you struggle to forgive others, how can you give that to God?
Takeaways
No one is perfect, we need forgiveness for our sins, and we need to forgive others when they sin.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you for forgiving me for a debt that I could never pay, help me to show the same grace and mercy to those around me.