We all need God's forgiveness, that s why Jesus died on the cross for us but we do need to ask for that forgiveness and say we are sorry through prayer. When we walk in God's forgiveness, we walk in the power that Jesus also won on the cross and this is very important in our prayer lives. Yet for us to receive God's forgiveness we too must forgive and keep forgiving those who hurt use and abuse us. Forgiveness is a choice that we make and we can ask God to help us to forgive especially when we find it hard to forgive others or even ourselves.
We need God's forgiveness but we need to forgive first. Check out Matthew 6:14-15 For if you forgive men their sins, your Heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you don't forgive men their sins, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your sins.
Once we've forgiven others we need to ask God to forgive us and to do that we need to confess our sins and say that we are sorry. 1 John 1:9 says If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
It may seem strange to leave this part of the prayer to near the end of the whole prayer but Jesus knew exactly what He was doing. Repentance flows out of a show of God's goodness and therefore to follow on from the asking makes perfect sense. Romans 2:4 says that it is God's goodness that leads us to repentance. God shows us His goodness through providing for us and blessing us. It is then through seeing God's forgiveness for us and the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross that we see that if God can forgive us we have no right to hold a grudge.
Repentance and forgiveness is not just something that we do once when we become Christians but it is a continual thing because we are not perfect and all fall short of God's glory. Ask God to search your heart and show you through His Holy Spirit any areas where you need to forgive or be forgiven.
Sara Hesbrook
2002-11-11
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