Faith To Believe Series

Prayer is the greatest tool we have in our Christian journey. It is the means by which we communicate with the Lord and bring our requests unto Him. We are commanded to pray without ceasing. Every aspect of our lives should be bathed in prayer. We are expected to pray for others, not just for our immediate needs. We limit our effectiveness in prayer when we are unwilling to forgive and address the needs in our own lives. We must strive to have a pure heart when we pray.

B. The Consideration (25b) – And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. We cannot expect God to hear or answer our prayers if we are unwilling to forgive the trespass of another. There is no doubt that we all fail and miss the mark daily. None live above sin. We are encouraged to confess our sin before the Lord, knowing He is faithful and just to forgive. However, it is hypocritical and even foolish to ask God to forgive our trespasses when we are unwilling to forgive someone else of the same.

C. The Consequence (26) – But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses. Jesus revealed a sobering word for our consideration. When we refuse to deal with the sin in our lives, which includes refusing to forgive the trespass of another, we cannot expect the Lord to deal favorably with us when we pray. The attitude of our hearts, and our willingness to address personal sin, have a direct bearing on our prayers. God will not hear our prayers, nor answer them, if we fail to forgive others as we should.

I know it can be difficult to offer forgiveness at times. There may have been wrongs committed that reconciliation has not been sought by the offender. It is difficult to offer forgiveness when it appears the other party doesn’t even care about the situation. We are expected to forgive, period. The Lord doesn’t apply any stipulations to this command. We must be willing to forgive if we are to receive. Consider all that Jesus endured as He hung on the cross, bearing our sin. Those who abused Him had not sought forgiveness, but He asked the Lord to forgive them because they did not know what they were doing. If Jesus can forgive the greatest injustice of all time, surely, we can forgive too!

Conclusion: This has been a compelling and challenging passage. Do we have genuine faith in God? Do we daily exercise our faith, seeking His will for our lives? Are we willing to deal with those areas in our lives that hinder our faith? I know that my faith needs to be increased and I struggle daily with issues that have the potential to hinder my walk with the Lord. We must be willing to seek Him for the needs we have, confessing our sin, forgiving others, and believing by faith!