Tag: Forgiveness

Posted on

I AM

JUNE 25

MATTHEW 6:14_Your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.

Take a moment right now and praise God for His willingness to forgive! Praise His heart filled with “mercy that endures forever.”  

God has a name – I AM. The perfect name for the only, true, living, and creating God. HE IS “the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever, amen!” And HE IS forgiving.

The Lord Jesus Christ gave up the perfection of heaven to live in a wicked world. There was no other way for you to receive forgiveness and salvation. If there is anything earth people need, it is forgiveness. 

This verse leads back to your Horizontal Ledger.  Jesus knew this principle was so against your natural instinct, He repeated it. When He teaches a principle a second or more times – take heed. This is not something to leave on the back burner.

If you forgive others for trespassing into your life, the Heavenly Father forgives you.

To be sure, you’ve done plenty of trespassing!          

PRAYER

Lord Jesus, When I step off the path of Your teaching, I begin to trespass into places I should not be. Praise You for forgiving me. In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.

Christ forgives my trespasses—He calls me to forgive!

Posted on

Violating Comfort Zones

JUNE 24

MATTHEW 6:14_For if ye forgive men their trespasses…

When you see a No Trespassing sign what does it tell you? Don’t go there! Don’t cross this line! This is not free range! Turn around! Go another way! If you continue in this path you are violating the law! Stay away!

Use your key to gain some wisdom, understanding, and knowledge about trespassing. You will find a lot. Proverbs 4:27 (KJV), “Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.”

Sometimes you stray from the path. Just a small step right or left, may require a very large step to get back on track. For the salty-lit-up disciple, that should bring conviction. You are unsteady. You can’t make yourself do right. The Holy Spirit pulls in the direction to follow. Ask forgiveness for trespassing down the wrong road.

The Lord places people around you. The Bible calls them your neighbor, but that does not mean they necessarily live next door.

Sometimes people stray and trespass into your life – violating comfort zones and causing pain.

No salty-lit-up disciple would deny forgiveness to a trespasser. Disciples know they have received forgiveness from God for their trespasses.      

PRAYER

Guiding Father, Please guide my feet in Your path. Please block me so I do not turn in another direction. If I do, set me back on Your road. In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.

Christ is the Path—I want to stay with Him!

Posted on

Traps Set

  JUNE 17

MATTHEW 6:13_And lead us not…

The word lead in this verse is translated to bring in or into. Part of your prayer life should include to ask for direction, or guidance.

Psalm 5:8, “Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face.”

That’s one to pray! It not only asks to be led, but to be led by righteousness. Tell God specifically why you need Him to lead you – because there are enemies out there (the devil and his demons). 

Another Psalm to pray is Psalm 143:10 (KJV), “Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.” This doesn’t need explaining. It’s all there (this verse showed up in the prayer on January 17).

Both of these Psalms express places you want to be. Places that cause you to feel closer to the Father and the Savior. Places of safety.

In Jesus’ model prayer He prays the reverse – lead us not. There are places out there that are not safe. The devil knows how to set traps. He wants to lead you to places you should not be.

These places are away from the Father and the Savior. The devil wants to lead you to places under his control.

Pray!

PRAYER

Righteous God, Lead me in Your righteousness. Make Your way straight before me. In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.

Christ knows where to lead me—I will follow!

Posted on

My Debtors

JUNE 16

MATTHEW 6:12_as we forgive our debtors.

My debtors caused this prayer to turn around. It was fine for God to forgive my debts. Psalm 136 (KJV) says twenty-six times, “for his mercy endureth for ever.”

I feel comfortable with the fact that God forgives me. That helps me overcome the lies the devil uses to deceive me that I can never be forgiven. This vertical forgiveness is from a God of true love. Jeremiah 31:3 (KJV), “The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee [you and me] with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”  Wow!

My debtors are those who have never paid things like:

A financial debt – money owed to me.

A verbal debt – a broken promise.

An emotional debt – harsh angry words which ripped apart every feeling of tenderness I ever possessed.

A trust debt – betrayal. 

Whatever the debt, it is still in my ledger. Before, my prayer life was only concerned with God’s ledger book – now He is meddling into mine.

God points out things like, “I’m ready to erase your debts recorded in My Vertical Ledger because you are not able to pay. But, I see all kinds of unerased debts in your Horizontal Ledger. Let Me teach you a solution.”  

PRAYER

Holy God, I want to have Your mercy that endures forever.  In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.

 Christ erased my sins—He teaches me how to erase!

Posted on

A Fly in the Ointment

  JUNE 15

MATTHEW 6:12_as we forgive our debtors.

When God pays your sin debt, the kicks you used to experience in sin begin to disappear. If they don’t, then in the words of the great Miss Clavel, “Something is not right!” (Madeline – Ludwig Bemelmans). You sin because it supplies some kind of satisfaction. It may be physical, emotional, or financial. When it no longer produces satisfaction (which is the nature of sin), you sink deeper and deeper into sin. The deeper, the harder to come out.  

When redeemed by the Savior, sin begins to lose its hold. There is no joy in sin for the saved. Just when things look good for the debtor, Jesus adds another piece to the pattern.

He lets a fly in the ointment!

Jesus’ prayer causes vertical forgiveness (from God to you) to be based on horizontal forgiveness (from you to your offenders). That means you pray God to forgive you in the way you forgive those who wrong you.

I declare! Jesus just won’t let you get by with anything! That takes a lot of love!

If you confess, repent, and ask God’s forgiveness, why should that have anything to do with those who wronged you? They need to do their own confessing! More of those natural instincts of your hard heart.

The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is your offenders and their confession is between them and God. You forgiving them is between you and God.

A clear sign you have been redeemed is you want to forgive. Old sins lose their grip and hard hearts soften!       

PRAYER

Great Redeemer, Thank You for not only saving me, but changing me. In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.                                                               

Christ redeems me—He changes me!