For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (Matt. 6:14, 15).
The one who will not forgive is unforgivable. Some people say, "God may forgive you, but I never will." That is understandable at times, and human--but it is wrong. We pray, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" (Matt. 6:12). Do we mean it? It is as clear as the Word of the Lord can make it that our forgiveness of others is necessary if the heavenly Father is to forgive us. And surely we need His forgiving mercy every day.
In one of the parables that Jesus told, the man who had been forgiven a great debt of 10,000 talents, which he had owed to his king, would not forgive someone else a debt of 100 pence, but "took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest" (Matt. 18:28). Because of his unforgiving spirit the king at once placed him back under the terrible unpayable debt of 10,000 talents. "His lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made" (verse 25). This is the law of the King: Forgive, and be forgiven; forgive others, and God forgives you.
Our forgiveness of others must be real. Two farmers whose land joined had been at enmity for years. One was bitten by a rattlesnake and given up to die. He called for his neighbor, confessed that he was guilty of wrong in their years-long dispute, and asked him to forgive him. The neighbor very graciously forgave him. Then the dying man added, "But remember, if I get well, the old grudge still stands!"
God reads the heart. If we forgive, He forgives; and how wonderful is His forgiveness!
MEDITATION PRAYER: "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out me transgressions" (Ps. 51:1).
The one who will not forgive is unforgivable. Some people say, "God may forgive you, but I never will." That is understandable at times, and human--but it is wrong. We pray, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" (Matt. 6:12). Do we mean it? It is as clear as the Word of the Lord can make it that our forgiveness of others is necessary if the heavenly Father is to forgive us. And surely we need His forgiving mercy every day.
In one of the parables that Jesus told, the man who had been forgiven a great debt of 10,000 talents, which he had owed to his king, would not forgive someone else a debt of 100 pence, but "took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest" (Matt. 18:28). Because of his unforgiving spirit the king at once placed him back under the terrible unpayable debt of 10,000 talents. "His lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made" (verse 25). This is the law of the King: Forgive, and be forgiven; forgive others, and God forgives you.
Our forgiveness of others must be real. Two farmers whose land joined had been at enmity for years. One was bitten by a rattlesnake and given up to die. He called for his neighbor, confessed that he was guilty of wrong in their years-long dispute, and asked him to forgive him. The neighbor very graciously forgave him. Then the dying man added, "But remember, if I get well, the old grudge still stands!"
God reads the heart. If we forgive, He forgives; and how wonderful is His forgiveness!
MEDITATION PRAYER: "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out me transgressions" (Ps. 51:1).
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