Forgiveness
Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. This is the only conditional petition Jesus taught us to pray…Forgive us AS WE forgive others.
“Before there is any talk in the prayer about our forgiving anyone else, we are made to ask for forgiveness ourselves. Before there is any consideration of the wrongs that we have suffered, we are made to ponder the great wrong God has suffered through us.”
William H. Willimon & Stanley Hauerwas, Lord, Teach Us: The Lord’s Prayer & the Christian Life
How much has God forgiven me? Every sin. How often has God forgiven me? Every single time I confess my sin, God has promised He is faithful and just to forgive my sin AND to cleanse me from all unrighteousness!
“What we call asking God’s forgiveness very often really consists in asking God to accept our excuses…What we have got to take to him is the inexcusable bit, the sin… As regards my own sins it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are not really so good as I think: as regards other men’s sins against me it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are better than I think.”
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
The great news of the Christian faith is that the worst of our past, the darkest, most embarrassing, shameful things we have ever done can all be forgiven right now because God, in the finished work of Christ on the Cross, has already, once and for all time, paid the price for our sins. You see, the more we understand how great a forgiveness we need and have received, the more we generous we become with forgiving others..
“To knife through our pretense, cowardice, and evasions, to see the truth about ourselves and the true state of our souls before God—this requires enormous courage and ruthless trust in the merciful love of the redeeming God. Put simply, sin must be acknowledged and confessed before there can be forgiveness and real transformation.”
Brennan Manning, Ruthless Trust
“Unforgiving people have not been forgiven themselves; those who are forgiven are so broken by it that they cannot but forgive others. They are children of God, and they act like God.”
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Life in Christ: Studies in 1 John
Our Father in heaven wants all of His children to have hearts that look like His: hearts overflowing with grace, mercy and forgiveness. This is actually nurturing good health for our human souls. We simply are not wired to hold onto bitterness, anger and grievances. It will burn us up like an combustion engine with no oil to grease its gears.
“Not forgiving someone is like drinking rat poison and waiting for the rat to die.”
Ann Lamont
Unforgiveness is the choice to define someone else by their sins against you. You would not want anyone to do that to you, would you?
“Once our eyes have been opened to see the enormity of our offense against God, the injuries which others have done to us appear by comparison extremely trifling. If, on the other hand, we have an exaggerated view of the offenses of others, it proves that we have minimized our own”
John Stott
Confession from the Book of Common Prayer:
Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed,
by what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us and forgive us;
that we may delight in your will,
and walk in your ways,
to the glory of your Name. Amen.
