Come Up Here And See

Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer to “Forgive us as we forgive others”.

When I read the Lord’s Prayer, it tells me that if I do not forgive others then God cannot forgive me.

Jesus further tells us that if a brother and that means anyone has something against us that even before we bring an offering to the Lord, we are to take action to make that right which means to bring peace and forgiveness.

• Matthew 5: 23-24 MSG “This is how I want you to conduct yourself in these matters. If you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you, abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God.

I was watching a tv show where a lady had contracted a disease in her unfaithfulness and had passed it to their child in the womb and after birth that newborn child only lived for so long. The guilt that she lived with took her to try to kill herself with multiple drugs, one of those drugs left her blind but as she lay dying, her husband who she had been unfaithful to was bitter about her unfaithfulness and about his child dying because of her unfaithfulness would not go near her, this blind lady was crying out for forgiveness, saying she was sorry as she died. It was overwhelming to see this played out on a tv show but you know the writers had either experience that themselves or knew of someone that did.

We see this unforgiveness too often in our world and even in our own lives. People stand determined to not hand out forgiveness to those who are asking. Others seem to have so much pride and believe that they do not need to ask for forgiveness.

The Bible makes it very clear if we do not forgive others then God the Father is not able to forgive us.

• Matthew 6: 14-15 NASB   For if you forgive other people for their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive other people, then your Father will not forgive your offenses.

God’s Word also clearly states that we have all sinned and need forgiveness. Romans 3: 23

Peter asked Jesus how often should I forgive my brother who has sinned against me, up to seven times but Jesus’ answer shocked them “up to seventy times seven”.  Jesus demonstrated with the parable of the king who wished to settle account with his slaves. One who owed ten thousand talents was forgiven by his lord but that slave went and found one who owed him a hundred denarii, a vast difference from what he had owed and he threw him into prison because the one who owed less could not repay. When the lord found out he was upset and his words to that slave was “you wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me and handed him over to the torturers until he could repay.  Jesus then said this is what the Heavenly Father will do with us if we do not forgive.” Matthew 18: 21-35

Wow, we are called wicked when we do not forgive.

Jesus, the Son of Man, the Son of God who never sinned went to the cross to be crucified as the Lamb of God so that the sins of the world, meaning that yours and mine sins were placed on Him and He was tortured beyond recognition and for the first time ever separated from His Father, Holy God because He cannot stand in the presence of sin and while on the cross asked the Father to forgive us.

• Luke 23: 34 NKJV Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” And they divided His garments and cast lots.

What a perfect demonstration for us so that we would be forgiving others and remembering to make peace with others who have taken offense to us.

I have had many times of forgiving others, but I think more times of where I have had to go to others and ask for forgiveness and sometimes it is freely given, other times not so much and time has to heal the wounds.

Since I am a Gran (grandmother), I tell my children that while my grandchildren are in my house my rules reign and believe me, the rules are simple and few. However, when it comes to forgiveness the standard that I have is that they must ask forgiveness and because my grandchildren are young, I am teaching them also to say I forgive you. I believe that is very important because I see where if you have not been taught how to give out forgiveness the pain is still there. I want them to learn from an early age about forgiveness, how to ask for forgiveness and how to give forgiveness because I did not learn that from an early age, and I know that if I had I been taught that principle my life would have been different.  

One time I had five of the grandchildren here and it was winter, and we were all dressed in boots, coats, mitts, and scarves standing at the back door to leave to walk to the park but there was bickering going on and these children were young. I said stop, we are going to pray the Lord’s Prayer. We stood holding hands praying the Lord’s Prayer, nothing dramatic but when we had completed praying that demonic strife was gone and we were able to have a fabulous day.

Heavenly Father I pray that You would show us where we need to forgive others and where we need to go to others to ask forgiveness. Lord, please show us that it does not matter who started the mess but that we would be quick to make peace with one another so that when we come to You there is nothing standing in the way of Your presence. Holy Spirit guide us, and I pray that we would hear Your voice quicker on this subject of forgiveness and that we would continually have a vision before us of how much we have been forgiven so we would be quick to give out forgiveness in Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

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