Do you mean what you pray?

"This, then, is how you should pray..."

A few days ago, a friend was telling me how she heard a compelling sermon on The Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6). Our conversation prompted me to stop and think about the prayer that Jesus Himself modeled for us so that we would learn from His example; so that we, unlike the foolish who spewed out many useless words just to be heard, would actually MEAN what we say and DO what we pray.

Going through the prayer, I got stuck on verse 6:

And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.

W-O-W... We are asking Our Father to forgive us in the same way that we have forgiven others. Do we really realize what we are praying? Do we REALLY mean that?

What would it look like if God forgave you JUST LIKE you forgive others?

A look at the amplified version further clarifies what Jesus meant by this:

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven (left, remitted, and let go of the debts, and have given up resentment against) our debtors.

This reminded me of something I read a while back from Philip Yancey's book "What's So Amazing About Grace."

Walter Wink tells the story of how a group of Polish Christians came to this very realization. Two peacemakers went to visit a group of Polish Christians ten years after the end of World War II. "Would you be willing to meet with other Christians from West Germany?" the peacemakers asked. "They want to ask forgiveness for what Germany did to Poland during the war and to begin to build a new relationship".

At first there was silence. Then one Pole spoke up. "What you are asking is impossible. Each stone of Warsaw is soaked in Polish blood! We cannot forgive!".

Before the group parted, however, they said the Lord's Prayer together. When they reached the words "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive . . . ", everyone stopped praying . Tension swelled in the room. The Pole who had spoken so vehemently said, "I must say yes to you. I could no more pray the Our Father, I could no longer call myself a Christian, if I refuse to forgive. Humanly speaking, I cannot do it, but God will give us strength!".

Eighteen months later the Polish and West German Christians met together in Vienna, establishing friendships that continue to this day.

In a similar way, I admit that forgiveness does not always come easy for me. It's so much easier to hold a grudge and remember the hurts and pain others have caused us than it is to extend LOVE and grace to them. But because of Christ, because His sacrifice has freed US of the penalty WE deserved, because God let go of our debts and has given up resentment against us, we are to do the same with others. This is the very thing that sets us, Christians, apart from other religions!

We definitely can't do this on our own. But I pray that God would give me, and anyone else reading this, the strength and grace to forgive. To forgive ourselves and others in the same manner that God has forgiven us.

The price has already been paid. We are forgiven. We are free. So lets put down our stones. Lay down our arrows. And live and love like Jesus.

Când ierţi, te vindeci. Când renunţi la eul tău, te maturizezi. Când plângi înaintea lui Dumnezeu, te predai. Când iubeşti necondiţionat, arăţi altora ce înseamnă dragostea lui Hristos.