Forgive Us
And forgive our debts, As we forgive our debtors
There are two parts to forgiveness. First we ask forgiveness for our sins, second we must forgive those who have sinned against us. Matthew 6:14-15 tells us that God will forgive us to the extent we forgive others. Forgiving others releases bitterness or resentment we may have in our hearts.
Read Matthew 6:14-15 NIV84
"For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. [15] But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins."
We must confess our own sins. God knows our sins but He wants us to acknowledge and confess our sins. When we sin, we sin against a righteous God. Psalm 51 is David's Psalm of confession when he sinned with Bathsheba. See 2 Samuel 11 for the story of David's sin and 2 Samuel 12 when God confronts David through the prophet Nathan.
Psalm 51:4 NIV
Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.
Confession:
Acknowledge I am a sinner, Help transform defects in my character, Help me overcome old nature issues, Search me Holy Spirit reveal sins in my life.
Forgiveness:
Lord help me to forgive others, help me to release bitterness that only hurts me, show me those I need to forgive.
There is much about forgiveness I do not fully understand. When we first become Christians and ask for forgiveness for our sins I believe that all of our past sins are forgiven. This is what, for lack of a better term, I will refer to as general forgiveness. Provision is also available, through the blood of Jesus Christ, for us to ask forgiveness for any sin we may commit in the future. We also forgive others and I believe that forgiveness is also complete and we are righteous, in a right standing, before God because of the Cross.
However, I will speak for myself and from my experience on this. I was forgiven for my past sins but there were still consequences for my sins that affect my life. My thoughts, attitudes, behaviors, and current relationships may be influenced by my past sins. For example, in my career, I treated many co-workers poorly. In many cases I was acting to make myself look better and get ahead no matter what the impact to others. Many times I got ahead at the expense of others.
There were things that others did to me that also impacted my life. Things I had buried in my subconscious and had completely forgotten about still affected my attitudes and behaviors resulting many time in sin. There were sins I could simply not be free of. Anger at certain things, lust for self exaltation, thinking I was better than others, and many other things affected my life.
As I began to pray I asked the Lord to reveal darkness in my heart. I found that things I had done or that others had done to me came to mind. I began to ask forgiveness for the specific sins I had committed and to the specific sins others had done to me. As I began this process I found my attitudes changing. Now I need to explain that some of these sins involved family members. Families are important in God's kingdom. A family is the model for and basic unit of the church. Forgiveness has an important role in family reconciliation.
I have more to say on forgiveness, however, I will develop the topic as a separate series of blog posts.
However, I will speak for myself and from my experience on this. I was forgiven for my past sins but there were still consequences for my sins that affect my life. My thoughts, attitudes, behaviors, and current relationships may be influenced by my past sins. For example, in my career, I treated many co-workers poorly. In many cases I was acting to make myself look better and get ahead no matter what the impact to others. Many times I got ahead at the expense of others.
There were things that others did to me that also impacted my life. Things I had buried in my subconscious and had completely forgotten about still affected my attitudes and behaviors resulting many time in sin. There were sins I could simply not be free of. Anger at certain things, lust for self exaltation, thinking I was better than others, and many other things affected my life.
As I began to pray I asked the Lord to reveal darkness in my heart. I found that things I had done or that others had done to me came to mind. I began to ask forgiveness for the specific sins I had committed and to the specific sins others had done to me. As I began this process I found my attitudes changing. Now I need to explain that some of these sins involved family members. Families are important in God's kingdom. A family is the model for and basic unit of the church. Forgiveness has an important role in family reconciliation.
I have more to say on forgiveness, however, I will develop the topic as a separate series of blog posts.
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