The Lord's Prayer Part 13: The Most Difficult Prayer Request?

“…and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

- Matthew 6:12 (ESV)

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”  

    - Matthew 6:14 (ESV)

    This is the 5th petition in the Lord’s Prayer. It is a plea that God will wipe away the debt that we have incurred by our sinfulness. We know that God forgives (Psalm 130:4) and that Jesus Christ paid for our debt with his own blood (Isaiah 53:4-6).  We need to pray for forgiveness daily because we continue to be flawed people. As we grow spiritually mature over time, we sin less. What makes this petition difficult is the declaration, “…as we also have forgiven our debtors,” that is attached after the plea. We are asking for forgiveness from the Holy God in proportion to the forgiveness that we give to those who have offended us. Astounding!

    This is a dangerous prayer because many of us struggle with forgiving others. Cheap forgiveness abounds. We dwell on offenses by reliving them in our minds.  We withold forgiveness and make the offender suffer for a while by avoiding them, greeting them with an icy reception, or by ignoring them. We bring the offense back up again to the offender or we bring it up to others. Be warned. Unforgiveness is a serious issue to Jesus Christ. He even provides further commentary in v.14. He points out that by forgiving others, our Father will also forgive us.

    Forgiving others is like cancelling or paying a debt in full that is incurred by the one who offended us. We let go of the demand for the offender to pay it back. We forgive because Jesus forgave us (Ephesians 4:32). The standard by which we forgive others is clear: forgive as the Lord forgave you (Colossians 3:13). If one cannot forgive, then Jesus is not ruler in that person’s heart. The problem with the unmerciful servant (Matthew 18:21-35) was that he did not reciprocate the mercy that was shown to him. Are we not like that all the time? An unforgiving heart cannot pray the Lord’s Prayer with authenticity.  The Lord does not withold forgiveness, rather he gives it freely.

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."   -1 John 1:9 (ESV)

    So how do we so live so that we will truly reflect God’s forgiveness to us? Ken Sande, in his book The Peacemaker, says that when you say to someone, “I forgive you”, what you are really saying is that you will keep these 4 promises:   

1. I will not dwell on this incident.


2. I will not bring up this incident again and use it against you.


3. I will not talk to others about this incident.


4. I will not let this incident stand between us or hinder our personal relationship.

    How would our lives be like if God gave a cheap kind of forgiveness? There would be no hope for us. Praise God for his goodness and mercy. Forgiveness is central to the gospel. Christians are the most forgiven people in the world. Lord we pray, that we would become a people of grace, freely bestowing forgiveness to others.