Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever.
Amen
Tonight I was reflecting on the Lord's prayer and suddenly had a light bulb go off in my head. I have heard this quoted thousands of times, I have read this thousands of times, and I have even prayed this thousands of times....BUT tonight I suddenly was drawn into two sentences. "And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. " What I realized tonight is this... God is almost telling us... IT WILL HAPPEN. You will mess up and people you know will mess up. Whenever I thought about this the first thing to pop in my head was driving. There are mornings when I am driving to work and someone inevitably pulls over and cuts me off. I think to myself..."REALLY? Was that REALLY necessary?" Did they intentionally do that to make me frustrated?" More times than not the person probably just needed to get over in order to make their turn. But, then I think about the other side of the story. There are mornings when I pull over in front of someone only to look back and see arms waving up in the air. I think, "Ooops. I didn't mean to make you mad! I just really had to get over!" Unfortunately, the person is already mad and I was that person who added frustration onto their day.
God understands. God warns us that we need to ask Him to forgive us of these sins. And in the very next sentence, we equally have to extend that grace to those who have trespassed against us. When we hurt or frustrate someone, God forgives us if we ask him to forgive. At the very same time, He calls us to forgive those people who "pulled out in front of our car early in the morning". I realized tonight how beautiful grace and forgiveness is in a world that assures us we will mess up. Thankfully, God loves us. Bottom line.
September 22, 2008
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1 comment:
Julie, I definitely can side with you on your post. I so often get frustrated with others (a lot while driving), but don't see it the same way when I'm the one frustrating others.
I am so forgiven, and get incredible grace from Jesus and I so often cheapen it. I don't live it out on a daily basis. Thank you for the post, and the simple reminder that we should forgive much because we're a people who have been forgiven much.
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