Drawing Nigh to God .....series

Drawing Nigh to God

by

Minnie E. Dauphinee

 

After This Manner Pray~ "Forgive Us..., As We Forgive"

our first spiritual need is for forgiveness of sin. Jesus spoke of it as a debt against God. The difference between our debts to God and those of others to us is illustrated in the parable of the unjust servant. Because the king's servant was unable to pay his debt of ten thousand talents, approximately $6,221.880. the king forgave him. This same servant refused to forgive a debt of a hundred pence, about $11.30, which a fellow servant owed him.

 

The offenses of our fellow men against us are trifling in comparison with our sins against God. All our lives we have sinned in thought and word and deed. Yet God is still willing to forgive. If we fully sensed the enormity of our offenses against Him, we would be ashamed to even think of the offenses of others towards us.

 

As though the sin of an unforgiving spirit was one that we need to guard against above all others, as soon as Jesus finished giving to the disciples the Lord's Prayer, He talked to them about forgiveness. "If ye forgive men their trespasses," He said, "your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (Matthew 6:14,15).

 

How contrary to our desire must be God's answers to our prayer for forgiveness if we have in our hearts an unforgiving spirit towards anyone, for our prayers have no other meaning than "forgive not my sins."

 

It seems that at least some of the disciples thought there should be a limit to human forgiveness, for at another time Peter asked, " 'Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?' " He immediately suggested an answer to his own question. " ' As many as seven times?' " "Jesus said to him, 'I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.' " "And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him" (Matthew 18:21,22 R.S.V.; Luke 17:4). "Seventy times seven"-four hundred and ninety times. In other words, our forgiveness to others is to be unlimited. This is reasonable, for we are dependent upon God's forgiveness and mercy every hour of every day. His forgiveness is to be the measure of our own. "Be ye kind one to another," say the apostle Paul, "forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you"(Ephesians 4:32)

 

Have we longed for more power in prayer and at the same time cherished a spirit of unforgiveness or dislike toward any? Is this the secret of our lack of power in prayer?

(pages 85-87)

 

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