We have seen how true Christian prayer is firstly orientated in a vertical direction by displaying concern for God’s name, kingdom and will. Last time we started to examine the horizontal aspect of our praying. We should pray for provision, pardon and protection. Today we turn to consider how our prayer should include a daily plea for forgiveness.
“FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS . . .”
This request lies at the heart of true Christianity. As John Onwuchekwa says in his book of prayer. It reminds us that peace with God always comes through pardon and forgiveness, never performance. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection on our behalf is our only appeal for forgiveness. A useful spiritual discipline for us to consider implementing is to study a good Christian book on the cross every year. We should never take the cross for granted and we should never lose our sense of wonder and gratitude. If we ever reach the point in our Christian lives of being bored by a sermon or devotion that reminds us of the grounds of our forgiveness in the cross of Christ and his triumphant resurrection we are indeed standing on dangerous ground. When we pray forgive us our debts we are not asking God to reconsider our debts, nor are we asking Him for time to pay our debts. We are asking for forgiveness. When we do this, we remind ourselves of two things. Firstly, we remember our consistent failings and secondly, God’s willingness to forgive. To miss a day without praying as Jesus taught us is to spend a day where I’m tempted to think that God and I are okay because of my performance. That has never been the case, nor will it ever be.
“AS WE HAVE ALSO FORGIVEN OUR DEBTORS”
Our Lord goes on to remind us that we ought to be as willing to forgive others for their offences towards us as the Lord is to forgive us, as we have also forgiven our debtors. In vrs 14, 15 Jesus spells out the consequences of forgiving or not forgiving those who have wronged us. For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. When our hearts aren’t convinced of our need for God’s forgiveness, we’re prone to hold grudges. We will then focus on other people’s debts and withhold forgiveness. In Matthew 18:23-35 Jesus tells the parable of the unmerciful servant. A servant was forgiven an astronomical debt of 10000 talents. One talent amounted to 6000 denarii (a working wage was one denarii a day). This means that the servant owed his master 60 million denarii (or 60 million days wages). This servant then proceeded to refuse to wipe out the debt of a fellow servant for the relative paltry amount of 300 denarii. The reason why Jesus chose such astronomical figures is because we have been forgiven an infinite debt by our heavenly father. Having been forgiven a Mt Everest sized debt by God why do we find it so hard to forgive a mole hill sized debt of someone who wrongs us? Jesus applied the parable in vrs 32-34, then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. If we are struggling to forgive someone for wronging us, we need to spend time meditating again on our own forgiveness in Christ. We need to pray forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors.