5 Things God Wants You to Know About the Lord’s Prayer نموونە

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors...

And here comes the big one – forgive us our debts, that big pile of wrongdoings that we have stacked up before God. It’s our own individual pile of wrongdoings that we can never make right, never make disappear. Our sins.

Of all the requests in the Lord’s Prayer, this is the one that we need the most!

Jesus doesn’t just teach us to ask for forgiveness, but he adds in a twist – forgive us as we forgive others. Lest we overlook how important that is, Jesus adds this teaching just a couple of verses later:

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. – Matthew 6:14-15

Basically, Jesus is saying this: don’t bother praying the Lord’s Prayer and don’t bother asking God for forgiveness, if you yourself can’t forgive others.

Check Jesus' reply to Peter’s question on forgiveness:

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. – Matthew 18:21-22

Jesus’ response – and the point of the parable he shares immediately after in Matthew 18:23-35 – was that we should forgive, forgive some more, and then keep forgiving even past when it hurts to do so.

And bundled in Jesus’ command for us to forgive others, is the idea that we should do as God does – to put the memory of the wrongdoing of others out of our minds, to the point of forgetting them:

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. – Psalm 103:8-12

Along the lines of forgiving “seventy times seven” is the concept that we should forget, put these wrongs out of our minds.

And that means no grudges, no revenge, no holding back, no de-friending others, no giving the cold shoulder, and on and on.

Basically, it means forgiving, forgetting and continuing on as Jesus would with our big pile of wrongdoings removed from God’s sight by the blood of Jesus.

Can you do that?