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Thursday, November 17, 2011

Pray this way: Our debts...



Image courtesy of Renjith Krishnan

"And forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors."--Matthew 6:12.  Jesus, continuing His instructions on how we ought to pray in contrast to the "hypocrites" mentioned in Matthew 6:5.  This third part of the prayer involves the forgiveness of our debts.

Our debts.  Have you ever owed money to people?  Do you currently owe money to people?  Maybe its something as simple as a loan  of just a couple of dollars or maybe its something larger such as a credit card, house, or car payment.  Whatever the case, wouldn't it be nice if your lender notified you that for whatever your reason your financial obligation was forgiven?  Furthermore what if the only condition to that forgiveness of obligation was that you pay that same forgiveness forward to someone who had some sort of obligation toward you?  I am sure you would be happy that your obligation has been taken care of. It would be a load off your back.

Our debts.  This concept of forgiveness is a concept that is at the core of Christianity simply because we do receive forgiveness of our sins through Christ and through Christ alone.  One thing we can glean from Matthew 6:12 as well as other passages in the gospels is that part of receiving forgiveness means we must also forgive others their debts to us.

Our debts.  The word debt here in Matthew 6:12 of course is not referring to a financial obligation but a moral obligation.  This part of the Model Prayer deals with our asking God to forgive us our "debts" or our obligation so the question must be asked, what is the obligation we are asking God to forgive?  The answer is simple, it is the obligation that we owe because of our sin and according to Romans 6:23 the wages of sin is death.  Therefore, because of our sin, our obligation to God because of our sin is our very lives.  But we are also told in Romans 7:24-25 that it is through Christ Jesus that we are set free from "this body of death."  But again, receiving this forgiveness is partly contingent upon our forgiveness of others of their moral obligations or their debts toward us.

Our debts.  So my encouragement to you this morning is simply this.  If their is someone you need to forgive, DO IT!  Again, forgiveness from God is partly contingent on our forgiveness of others.  Another aspect of forgiveness from God is also contingent upon our repentance of our own sin.  So if there is a sin in your own life that you need taken care of, pray this prayer but also repent of that sin and turn away from it.  Most importantly though if you have not done so, we know from Acts 2:38 that repentance is followed by baptism for the forgiveness of sins.  If none of these apply to you, I am sure you know of someone that struggles with forgiving others.  Share this message with them but also continue to examine your own life as sin often creeps in the back door without us noticing.  May the Lord "forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors."

Thanks for taking time out of your morning to read this!

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! PRAY ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!
  

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