A Prayer About ForgivingBear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3:13
Lord Jesus, every time I hear, read or pray “The Lord’s Prayer” I’m confronted with just how daily the call to forgiving is. Most of the time that presents no problem for me at all. Maybe it’s because I’m conflict avoidant and would rather wave off an offence than wade into the mess of really dealing with the issue.
But it’s Scriptures like this which expose my laisser-faire towards forgiveness as lazy-ness, not loving-kindness. If I’m to forgive others as you have forgiven me, Jesus, that’s going to require a lot of hard and heart work. It’s going to require a big gospel for people like me.
Jesus, I praise you for already forgiving all of my sins-past, present and future… every sin of word, thought and deed. How I praise you for not waving off my sins, but wading into the mess and paying the supreme price of your life and death, that I might know the incomparable blessing of being forgiven and declared righteous in you. How I praise you for now “bearing” with me, as a forgiven, but very much still, a broken man. How I praise you that “bearing” with us doesn’t mean you merely endure us, grin-n-bear us, or merely put up with us… but you actually delight in us, you enjoy us, you like us…
Here, then, is what I’m aware of really needing from you, Jesus, in this journey of becoming to others what you are to me. I want to learn to forgive from my heart. I want to take offenses seriously enough to do the costly work of forgiveness. Certainly, I want to overlook what should be overlooked, but I need you to show me the difference.
I need you to show me the ways my conflict avoidance has made me a serial killer in my heart. Even as I write and pray this prayer, two faces come before me of people that I haven’t forgiven, I’ve just been avoiding. Yet, I have so enjoyed holding them hostage by my critical spirit and self-righteous smuggery. Help me Jesus, and others like me.
Lastly, Jesus, I need you to give me the grace I need to forgive and to lovingly forbear the everyday grievances of life. I live and work with broken people, just like me. I don’t want just to “put up” with people; I want to “put on you,” and learn to delight in, enjoy and actually like people, who otherwise grieve and irritate the dickens out of me. Help me, Jesus, and others like me. Very amen I pray, in your grace-full Name.
