“And forgive us our sins,
As we forgive those who sin against us.” – Matthew 6:12
The finished work of Jesus on the cross as our Passover Lamb, has provided every person with the opportunity to repent of their sins and place their faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Salvation is the anchor which enables us to have relationship with God, our Creator and Father.
Forgiveness is also the prerequisite to daily intimate fellowship with Him, as the Holy Spirit works in us to shine the Light of God through us, by renewing how we think, what we say and the things we do. It’s by this Light that He exposes the darkness that resides in us and patiently encourages us to deal with it.
In Jesus’ earthly ministry He continually told people to “sin no more”… to put off their old sin nature and to turn and follow God’s ways. While we all know it is impossible to live the rest of our life without sinning - God’s grace doesn’t absolve us from working to put sin in its place. We need to be aware of the tactics of the enemy that can so easily ensnare us in sin. But when that is where we find ourselves all is not lost…God’s grace also gives us the gift of repentance. His forgiveness is not only important to our life in regard to eternity, but it’s important to our faith in our daily walk with Him.
“God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.” - 1 John 1:5-10
The only way to freely give forgiveness to others is to focus on the forgiveness we have been given through Jesus’ blood shed for us. We cannot live in harmony with God without forgiveness, and without a forgiving spirit we cannot live in peace and love with others. In no way does forgiving others mean coming into agreement with the words, actions, or hurt that have come against you. It doesn’t let the other person off the hook or diminish the pain that it has caused us – rather forgiveness removes us from being tethered to them and holding on to the pain they caused, in a way we no longer need to. We let go of the offence and we hold on to Jesus, freeing our hearts to trust God, to heal us, and renew us to love again.
This prayer petition calls all Believers to walk in the light. Let us be women who desire to live in the Light… who view repentance as a privilege and not a punishment… who desire others to receive the same grace and forgiveness that we too have received…and who grow in intimacy with our Father as we bow to our knees and humbly request that He forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
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