“Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12)
“For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” (Matthew 6:14—15)
A Hard Saying
Here opens Lesson 7 of Teach Us to Pray—Learning to pray from the Lord’s Prayer and teachings of Jesus. We are at the “forgive us as we forgive” section of the Lord’s prayer, undoubtedly one of the most difficult parts of the prayer. How are we doing on the forgiveness scale?
The lesson continues:
“Forgiveness is a touchy topic to deal with. We’ve all been hurt or had wrong done to us by others at one time or another and to one degree or another, anything from small slights to major transgressions. It may seem easier to go through life holding a grudge, trying to ignore the one who hurt us rather than forgive the transgressor, but we will not like the end result of our unforgiveness. Jesus said the person who does not show mercy to another will herself not be shown mercy. We need to do some hard thinking about the cost to ourselves of unforgiveness.”
If you wonder what mercy has to do with forgiveness … well when one says it out loud it seems self-explanatory, doesn’t it? But I actually hadn’t given it much thought until I was studying Matthew 7:1-2 in the Sermon on the Mount, you know, the “judge not so that you will not be judged” verse. And the next verse, “for in the way you judge, you will be judged.” That verse always gave me pause …
Have Mercy
Studying the Sermon, I spent lots of time in those scriptures, reading sections every day for weeks. And I began to hear what God is saying (that’s why I say read a passage day after day for a week or more). I began to connect the “dots” of scripture, and they made a perfectly clear picture: “Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy” (Matthew 5:7) and “in the way you judge, you will be judged” (Matthew 7:2). I understood: Mercy in judgement.
That is how God has dealt with us. With mercy.
Like Father …
Connecting more scripture dots: be merciful like our heavenly Father is merciful.
Somewhere forgiveness fits in there, also making a perfectly clear picture. Mercy in forgiveness. Mercy for mercy.
That’s what we investigate in Lesson 7.
Consider joining us in a Zoom class of Teach Us to Pray in January 2022. Stay tuned for details.
