Devotion:
Read Matthew 6:9-15.
Matthew has an interesting way of grouping Jesus’ teachings into collections. Our passage for today comes in the collection known as the sermon on the mount, in which Jesus taught his disciples on a wide range of topics. In the verses immediately preceding these, Jesus taught that prayer should be done in private and that it should be simple and straightforward. As if to illustrate what he meant by this, Jesus says, “this is how you should pray,” and gives us the very simple and brief model prayer we know as the Lord’s Prayer. In our prayers, we are to praise God, ask for God’s will to be done, ask for our daily needs, ask for forgiveness of our sins, and ask for deliverance from evil.
There is a huge twist that we miss sometimes in the way Jesus instructs us to pray for forgiveness...to pray affirming that we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. Another way to say this would be for us to pray for God to forgive us just as much as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. Not sure about this interpretation? I invite you to also read verses 14 and 15. In these two verses, Jesus makes it clear that God will only forgive us if we forgive others. They will know we are Christ’s followers and disciples by our love, and that includes our forgiveness.
Personal Worship Option:
Reflect today on persons you have struggled to forgive. Sometimes hurt can run so deeply that we find it almost impossible to forgive, especially if the other person does not express sorrow for the hurt they have caused. Pray today to let it go and to forgive just as much as you wish God to forgive you.
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