May we forgive

Mat 5:2  And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying…

After the Lord gave us the manner in which we should pray- including this in that very well known prayer-

Mat 6:12  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

He EMPHASIZES this -

Mat 6:14  For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:

Mat 6:15  But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

What does forgiveness mean?

If I forgive your debts what am I doing? I'm telling you that you no longer owe me anything, right? If I forgive your trespasses I'm forgiving what?

From Strong's dictionary-

'From G3895; a side slip (lapse or deviation) that is (unintentional) error or (wilful) transgression: - fall fault offence sin trespass. '

I'm forgiving any error you've committed, any transgression, any fall, any fault, any offence, any sin.

And if you notice the verse reads- forgive men their trespasses.  It doesn't say specifically here to forgive men their trespasses they've committed against just you.

If forgiving a debt means the debtor no longer is in debt, then forgiving a sin means that sin is no longer being held against you.

We NEED to be forgiven our sins against our God, without that forgiveness we are not reconciled to God, there is a barrier between us and God, an offence between us.  Only when the debt of sin is erased  can we be reconciled to God, we can stand before God with nothing keeping us from Him. We want God to forgive all the wrongs we commit against Him, every single wrong.  For this to be possible WE have a part to play, we have to FORGIVE OTHERS.

They won't deserve forgiveness any more than we deserve forgiveness from God.

There won't be any criteria they'll have to follow to earn our forgiveness. WE have to forgive them freely if we want to be forgiven freely. We love to put conditions on our giving others forgiveness. If they do this, if they do that, if they don't do this or that THEN we'll give our forgiveness.

IF we forgive men their trespasses, our Heavenly Father will also forgive US! 

Jesus spoke these words, they are TRUTH.

Satan will do everything he can to keep us from extending forgiveness to anyone, from the least offender, to the worst.  Satan wants us to believe that if we extend forgiveness to those who have wronged us or wrong others we know, or even those who have wronged themselves, that we are somehow telling them that what they've done doesn't matter, that they've gotten away with their act without the consequence of our un-forgiveness as a punishment.  We somehow imagine that our not forgiving others hurts that person, but truthfully it hurts only us. It hurts us not them. In some ways it hurts us more than the act whatever it was that turned us against them, making us refuse them forgiveness.  Not forgiving others lets that sin rest upon us.

Our Savior died so we could be forgiven. Our Savior tells us if we forgive others their trespasses, our Heavenly Father will forgive us.

People want to know how to be forgiven and the usually reply is to ask for it and it's given freely.  This is true, but our Savior's words to us are also true and we can't neglect them just because we don't want to think too long and hard about having to forgive others. 

Remember if someone slaps you on one cheek let them slap the other? Remember if someone sues you and takes your coat, give them your cloak too? Remember is someone wants you to go a mile with them, you go double that?  What is all this- but EXTENDING FORGIVENESS, FORGIVENESS IN ACTION.  You're hurt and while sometimes it's justified, meaning you deserved the hurt because of something you've done, other times you are hurt unjustly and whether it's one or the other- you FORGIVE, you accept more hurt if that's what the one you're forgiving wants to give you, but you FORGIVE.

We are to forgive and our Heavenly Father will forgive us.

We have to believe that we are truly owed nothing by the one who has offended us. They hurt us and we cannot change that by any anger or retribution we want to enact.  Even if we somehow manage to hurt them in return for their hurting us, or get them to pay for what they've done, does that change the initial hurt at all? Does that alter the offense? The offense was still committed and nothing can undo the committed act. You can dwell on the committed act or you can seek forgiveness.

Forgiveness is NOT deserved.

We can never deserve to be forgiven.

We cannot pay for forgiveness because if we are paying for it, then it automatically is no longer forgiveness but a debt paid by other means outside of forgiveness.

We need to forgive others and we need to do it daily, in all things, in the tiniest of offense to the biggest offense in existence.

Choosing to forgive is just that- an act of will, a decision.

There is no magic that happens when we choose to forgive someone. There isn't a choir singing around us, no fireworks go off, we receive no pats on our backs, no medals or awards for choosing to forgive another. We gain no money, no brownie points in our favor at all.  We forgive and it frees us to be forgiven in turn, but it must be a true forgiveness, born out of the love we are to give to others in loving our neighbors. God's love.

Love, forgiveness.

May we forgive, and by our Lord's grace, be forgiven.

All in HIS LOVE.