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Forgive us our Debts

And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors… 

It was like I heard this for the first time this weekend.  I have prayed the Lord’s Prayer since I was a child.  I remember learning it, I remember saying it at church at different times, like before communion.  I remember personalizing it and making it my own for a devotional I was doing, but I had never really read this verse.  I know that I have read the verse prior to this weekend, and spoken it hundreds, if not thousands of times, heard it and prayed it in my heart.  Perhaps this is the first time I have taken the time to comprehend the verse. 

Forgive us our debts AS we also have forgiven our debtors.  Two letters that make this a different prayer for me.  AS we have forgiven.  So if I choose to hold onto bitterness or hatred or a grudge, the Lord has every right to do so too?  As…  what a compelling little word. 

What I am praying in this prayer is that as I do, let it be done unto me.  If I forgive, let me be forgiven.  Or if I only forgive partially, let me only be forgiven partially.  Am I really willing to pray that?  This is the way that Jesus taught us to pray, but am I really ready for that?  Have I evaluated my heart enough to be able to say that?  Is there something that I need to forgive or to let go of that is causing me to not be able to actually pray this prayer? 

It his me this weekend, I was sitting in a sermon about marriage.  A really good one as a matter of fact, and this was a verse that he referenced.  He didn’t go into the “as” factor or anything, but it was like a bullet to my brain.  I grabbed my kindle out and wrote a note to evaluate it further as I had the time.  The more that I sat and pondered on it, it really hit me that I needed to give up any past grievances done to me so that I too can have all the things that have grieved God forgotten and let go of also. 

Do you have something in your life that you have trouble letting go of?  I am sure that God has something in our life that has vexed Him deeply.  But if we can let go of what we have been hurt with, then so can He.  We ask Him to forgive us our debts AS we forgive our debtors and to lead us not into temptation, but to deliver us from evil. 

Check out the Lord’s prayer- it is well worth the time you spend looking at it – Matthew 6:9-13. 

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