When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, He used one phrase that makes me squirm uncomfortably.
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
--Matthew 6:12
Am I really supposed to ask God to forgive me the same way I forgive others? Considering my skills as a forgiver, that is a request I would never want to make.
Just last week, I found myself re-battling a wound someone had inflicted over a year ago. I felt bitterness, as though the offense had happened earlier that day. Yet a year ago, when it actually happened, I had decided to forgive.
Why does my "forgiveness" allow my resentment to lie dormant for extended periods of time, only to burst out of the ground like some hideous weed? I sprayed the weed-killer last year. My sidewalk cracks have been bare and now, for no apparent reason, this monster has burst out once again.
If God forgives me like I forgive others, I'm done for. That would mean a week or a year or a decade after my conversion, He would take it all back on a whim and leave me out in the cold.
Thank God, His forgiveness is forever. No one can snatch me out of His hand. I can't lose my salvation.
But still. He chose to use this phraseology. He chose to make my forgiveness of others a condition for His forgiveness of me. Why?
"Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."
--Ephesians 4:32
No matter what, God's forgiveness comes first. God's forgiveness is best. He will always "one-up" me in whatever forgiveness I offer to others.
But when I forgive, I represent the gospel. I forgive because He did! So I want to forgive like He did.
Please, Lord, make me a faithful forgiver, so that I show the nature of Your love.
