Reading Matthew with Missional Eyes

Jesus has instructed His followers about giving, prayer and fasting. These three  spiritual  disciplines have some common elements, which Jesus has highlighted in His teaching: 

About giving, He said, “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Commentator John Nolland wrote, “The point about the left hand not knowing could be that such a tight circle of privacy would eliminate the possibility of building up one’s own image even in one’s own eyes (in the imagery left and right hands, in practical activity, are very close together—much closer to each other than to the head or eyes). The alternative is that such a restriction of knowledge would certainly eliminate any possibility of public acclaim.”

About prayer, He said, “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Warren Wiersbe said of that, “The first step toward overcoming hypocrisy is to be honest with God in our secret life. We must never pray anything that we do not mean from the heart; otherwise, our prayers are simply empty words. Our motive must be to please God alone, no matter what men may say or do. We must cultivate the heart in the secret place. It has well been said, “The most important part of a Christian’s life is the part that only God sees.”

About fasting, He said, “But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” LeRoy Lawson wrote, “To exercise the discipline properly requires neither sackcloth and ashes nor hunger pains and dry tongue. Rather, a conscious and conscientious denial of self for the sake of another is what constitutes fasting. It is identifying with the miserable, the hungry, the thirsty, and the naked.”

This common theme tells us that Jesus wanted His followers to practice their spiritual disciplines without drawing attention to themselves. In fact, He expected them to take steps to ensure that what they do does not become public. Their motive must be pure. All of the focus driving their activity is to be on one’s own relationship with God, and not any of it is to be on self-glorification. Only God has the right to glorify Himself, for only God is God. His people must therefore be about glorifying Him, not themselves. As God is unseen (yet sees all), it serves best that the believer who wants to commune with Him act as He does: That we bless Him in giving while unseen. That we speak to Him in confidence while unseen. And that we beseech Him for His best for others, likewise unseen.

If we be sincere in our solemn fasts, and humble, and trust God’s omniscience for our witness, and his goodness for our reward, we shall find, both that he did see in secret, and will reward openly. Religious fasts, if rightly kept, will shortly be recompensed with an everlasting feast.

Matthew Henry

APPLICATION: Thankfulness

Meditate on Revelation 22:12, “Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.” Thank God that He sees all you do for Him and His Kingdom.

Fasting usually results in God’s gracious response. But not always. Isaiah 58   relates the Lord’s frustration with Jewish religious leadership. “‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. 

Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?  Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” 

The reader of Scripture can perceive that the Jewish leadership had been going through the motions of repentance without actually being repentant. Isaiah’s point to them is clear. Fasting is useless if it is not a heartfelt attempt to humble oneself before God. Merely abstaining from food will never gain God’s approval. Even if it is accompanied by sackcloth and ashes. It is impossible to try to “empty oneself” apart from actual repentance. It just cannot be done in God’s sight. Fasting just for the sake of abstaining from food is its own reward – it gives the body time to cleanse and heal. So do not expect an additional spiritual reward if there is no spiritual effort accompanying it. Rather, the Lord tells us it is better that we be concerned with the physical well being of others than to lay around in sackcloth and ashes. 

The whole point of fasting is to break bonds. Breaking the bond that food has on your own body is just an outward manifestation of the reality of breaking the spiritual bonds holding down others. It is an act of humility, because the one suffers for and on account of the other. Fasting is a weapon of spiritual warfare. It has the power to loose chains, untie cords, to set people free and to break yokes of slavery to ungodliness. But only if and when the practitioner has first emptied themselves in humility (ensuring their voice is clear and loud in God’s ears) and is seeking what God wants (ensuring His voice is clear and loud in their ears), not their own desire. 

What God wants is clear from Scripture. He wants His Kingdom (including the freedom of His people) and His rule (including the destruction of that which is opposed to Him) and His glory (including the praise His people give Him for freeing them and destroying what held them in bondage). What God does not want is attention and glory for the impure. To this point Jesus instructs, “But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”  In saying that, recognize that the Lord is not prescribing hypocrisy. Quite the opposite. Repentance must be a matter of the heart that results in outward action, not outward action alone.

Great prophets such as Amos, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Hosea came to the people to remind them that God demands genuine, godly sorrow that comes from the heart. The bottom line was this: the people were called to rend their hearts, not their garments. When the prophets exhorted the people in this way, they weren’t opposing the practice of the rending of garments, but were saying that it’s not enough to tear your clothes as a sign of repentance; the heart must be torn as well. When we realize that we have offended God, we must feel this rupture of our soul.

R.C. Sproul

APPLICATION: Intentionality

The next time you fast, keep it between you and the Lord.

Throughout the Bible, fasting and prayer seems to have a special place in finding positive  responses  from the Lord. That doesn’t mean we can manipulate God, obviously – He is God after all, and we are not. But unfortunately, that doesn’t stop people from trying to manipulate others around the subject.

Fasting any period of time creates discomfort. If you fast severely (no water and no food) you become dehydrated. That starts to show up in how you look. Fasting longer will result in loosing weight. Eventually it becomes quite noticeable to those in your circles that something is happening to you. If they connect that you are fasting with how you look, it can appear that you are taking your relationship with God most seriously. Sadly, some people are more interested in making sure others notice piety than in actually being pious. That’s nothing new. The Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible notes, “In general, in the OT, fasting was abused. Instead of a sincere act of self-renunciation and submission to God, fasting became externalized as an empty ritual in which a pretense of piety was presented as a public image.”  For this reason Jesus said, “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting.”

In our culture, it is almost laughable that someone would go so far as to disfigure their face to try to demonstrate that they are fasting. Yet Jesus’ admonition has a real application to us too. Deliberately casting a wrong impression so that others think more of you is actually more prevalent in our modern culture, not less. It is actually expected that we present a good image to all around us, and the fashion, hair dye and makeup industries attest to that. It is not uncommon to only post pictures that demonstrate your ‘good side’.  It is not uncommon to exaggerate the time spent at the gym or in study or in work. And one has only to  think of the many examples of influencers on Instagram who have been caught filtering their pictures to deliberately give a very wrong impression. In a world full of cameras, such immature foolishness is bound to be noticed. That is bad, but the foolishness of misleading others by appearing to please God is much worse, and only equaled by God’s ironic response to it. Christ notes, “I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.” In other words; instead of receiving praise from God for having sought Him, the deceiver’s only praise is their own self-satisfaction at having appeared to have done so – something they themselves know is just a foolhardy fabrication. 

Yet it is worse than that. The one who lies about their appearance or their labour is being dishonest to men before God about that which matters for little. But the one who lies about their devotional/prayer life is being dishonest to God before men about that which matters much. 

Those who hypocritically mislead others into thinking they are pious when they are not succeed only in trading a most positive response from God Most High (which is worth much for eternity) for a fake knowing glance by other human beings (which is worth less than nothing for but a moment). It is like trading a bag of pure gold for a single fair token to a rigged game of chance – one that you rigged yourself to ensure all bets loose. That is not just foolish. It is downright stupid.

It is possible to state partial truth in such a way as virtually to lie, and to be silent when silence may be designed to convey a false impression. [But] wise reticence will always be consistent with truthfulness.

Henry D.M.S. Jones

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Are you honest when a brother or sister in Christ asks you about your prayer/devotional life? Are you honest with God about the state of your own soul?

There are certain times that come in most everyone’s life that call for  unusual measures. Days of grief and mourning that are so severe they do more than fill your time with preoccupation, they interrupt your function as a human being. Sleep flees from you. Meals are missed and meals are avoided. Not because you are not hungry and not because you do not need sustenance, but because now is not the time for food. It is a time for uninterrupted, focused and constant prayer. 

David had a time like that in his life. His new wife had recently given birth, but the child had fallen gravely ill. 2Sam 12 records, “David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground. The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them.”  Of course, if you know the whole story, you know that David was fully responsible for what was happening. He had conceived the child while Bathsheba was married to another man, and then he had ensured that her husband would be killed in battle. 

God had seen what David did and so purposed to humble him severely. To that point He sent Nathan the prophet, who accused David to his face and prophesied that the child would die. Then, “the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill.”  David, aware of his part in what was now happening, was struck to the core with remorse and sought God’s face for forgiveness through prayer and fasting. 

Nevertheless, it is not a small thing to commit so grievous a sin when you are the leader of many. The child still died as prophesied. Solomon’s blood brother never saw his first birthday. There were other consequences too. David’s family became horribly dysfunctional. There was civil war for years. The sword never left Israel during his tenure as King. Many people died. Yet amazingly and through it all, God forgave David. David didn’t lose the throne or his relationship with God. Instead of becoming a footnote in history or an example of failure, David was enabled to persevere. Ultimately, he became the epitome of Israel’s success. But surely if David had not humbled himself before God at that critical time, the outcome would’ve been quite different. 

Thankfully, David knew there is something about ‘making oneself empty’ that is appropriate to repentance. Not only that, it helps one focus on God our Father – which is always helpful. Fasting is therefore not only a way for us to grieve over sin and brokenness (ours or others), it is a way to enter into God’s grief. Doing so draws His attention in a very positive way.

Grief and hardship are not always the result of our own foolishness. But whether they are inflicted upon us or not, fasting (with prayer) is always an appropriate response. 

Amen.

The Scripture says that “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2Cor 5:21) If the sinless Son of God could ‘take on’ our sin for us, surely we as His followers can ‘take on’ an act of repentance for those around us. Indeed, this is part of our calling. For we have been given a ministry of reconciliation that we might help bring the lost back into relationship with God Most High.

Marcus Verbrugge

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Have you ever fasted for the benefit of someone else? What happened when you did?

Moses was commanded of God regarding the Day of Atonement, “On the  tenth day of  this seventh month hold a sacred assembly. You must deny yourselves and do no work.” The Day of Atonement was a special gathering, where the Israelites acknowledged that they as a people group had sinned, and where they sought forgiveness for that sin through an offering. It was a very serious observance, as the Lord instructed in Leviticus 23, “Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present an offering made to the Lord by fire. Do no work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the Lord your God. Anyone who does not deny himself on that day must be cut off from his people. I will destroy from among his people anyone who does any work on that day. You shall do no work at all. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. It is a sabbath of rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your sabbath.”  

The Hebrew wording transliterated “deny yourselves” literally means to become empty. It means to fast. The ideas of both humility and hunger are called to mind. Simply put, fasting is abstaining from something (usually food) for a period of time in order to focus on spiritual matters (primarily prayer). Fasting is meant to accomplish two things – to humble ourselves before God, and to sharpen our focus on Him. It is a powerful spiritual discipline, and it always is used in conjunction with prayer. Although Scripture demonstrates prayer as often done apart from fasting, it never demonstrates fasting apart from prayer.

Though the observance of Lent is encouraging a resurgence of the practice, fasting may still be described as among the least practiced spiritual disciplines in all of western Christianity. But Jesus expected His disciples to use that discipline, and in conjunction with prayer. To that point, having just finished teaching His disciples how to pray, Jesus turns His attention to fasting. He begins, “When you fast…” 

That Jesus used the Greek word transliterated <hotan> (meaning “when”) instead of a word meaning “if” tells us that Jesus had that expectation of His listeners. And although other fasts in addition to the Day of Atonement came to be regularly observed (see Zechariah 8:19), fasts were not normal behaviour. They still are not. To that point, fasting is understood as a spiritual discipline that is expected, but not regular. It is a holy observance – a special thing to be used on occasion. 

That is because it marks an unusual appeal to God, above and beyond our normal, day-to-day prayer. But just because it is not a normal part of everyday life doesn’t allow that we can forgo it altogether. There are times of special consecration (like the day of Atonement) and times of special appeal to God on account of national or private tragedy. These times call God’s people to seek Him in an unusual way, proportional to the event at hand. Simply put, they call for fasting. 

Fasting provides an environment for tuning our lives to God. It is not that the Lord speaks louder when we fast, but that our spiritual ‘receptors’ are able to receive what He is saying to us. It is perhaps one of the deepest expressions of dying to self and of surrender to Him. We are better able to hear what God is saying.

Julio Ruibal

APPLICATION: Intentionality

When did you last fast? What did God say to you during that time?

Virtually every government on earth has high-security prisons to house  those who have  done evil to others. Either they have wronged individuals or they have wronged society. Some are so violent and bent on destruction they cannot even walk among the rest of the prison population – these are held in solitary confinement. Yet Jesus says that even if such as these offended us, we must forgive them. 

Having included the line “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors,” in the Lord’s prayer, Jesus now explains more fully just how important forgiveness is. He says, “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

He does more than simply say that though. He modeled it. When they crucified Him, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Even while being tortured to death by hanging on the cross, He forgave. He did more than forgive – He interceded that they might be forgiven! Such is our example! 

To truly experience forgiveness, one must actually forgive. For apart from forgiveness there is only bondage. Unforgiveness always results in bondage, because unforgiveness rapidly degenerates into bitterness, and bitterness always defiles and injures. A hurt never dealt with leads to a very ugly wound indeed – a festering wound that keeps you from enjoying life the way life was meant to be enjoyed. The smell of it makes you unfit for fellowship with the king, let alone the sight. So to hold to unforgiveness is to impose a massive limitation on yourself. It effectively makes you imprison yourself in a worse way than those in solitary confinement. That is bondage, full stop. 

It really doesn’t matter how a wound happened.  Knowing it was an accident or knowing it was completely deliberate does not change the way you deal with a wound. You must deal with it all the same, and you must do so speedily. Trauma specialists tell us that we must follow a protocol – breathing, bleeding, burns and bones – in that order. Likewise, it really doesn’t matter how the unforgiveness got there to start with. Knowing how the offence occurred cannot change how you deal with unforgiveness either. Unforgiveness is trauma to the soul. It mandates urgent soul care, and that care also has a protocol. Certainly immediate safety (to be delivered away from the injurious person or circumstance) is critical to avoid more injury, and one must arguably experience a degree of security to look at (to address) the soul wound. But forgiveness is the salve that washes bitterness away and stops the wound from festering unto spiritual gangrene. 

Forgiveness is therefore critical to our spiritual health. It is critical to being able to enjoy God and His Kingdom just as much as good health is critical to being able to enjoy our present world. How then how could we possibly believe we are obedient disciples and hold to unforgiveness? How indeed, especially knowing that God has explicitly said He will not forgive us our sins if we do not forgive others? 

One must remember that our sins against God were acts of treason against Him, and He is worth infinitely more than us. In fact, He is infinitely greater than us in every possible respect. So the crimes against our being are far less grievous than our crimes against Him. Yet, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” If then we are to be called by His Name, we are bound to imitate His forgiveness toward all those around us. Amen.

When Christ tells us to forgive, he is speaking to those who are most vulnerable—those who have been violated. He knows that he speaks to people whose trust has been betrayed or who face humiliation. His words are intended for those whose character has been unjustly damaged, for the one whose life has been marred by the sin of others.

Knute Larson

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Think about those who have harmed or mistreated you. Is there any malice on your part toward them still? Who do you still need to forgive?

Jesus knew that evil existed and that it was epitomized in the person of the   devil. He Himself had personally met the devil in the wilderness during His temptation (Matt 4:1-11). The devil wasn’t just a concept to Him. Consequently, Jesus taught about the reality of the devil and the reality of evil, because He knew that people encountered those realities on a regular basis. He has taught that the common practice of exaggerating agreement or disagreement through the swearing of oaths is based on a lie from Satan that we should reject out of hand, “Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” He has taught that His followers should not resist someone who is evil, but instead demonstrate goodness to them, “But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” 

The principles of rejecting demonic lies and demonstrating goodness in response to evil are useful tools for everyday life. Yet Jesus knew that such principles have limited use among fallen human beings. We need more than a couple of tools to know how to deal with an adversary stronger than we are. We need deliverance. To that end Jesus includes the line in His prayer template, “deliver us from the evil one.”

Praying for deliverance is usually something we see only at charismatic prayer and healing events, or in the odd illustration a pastor uses during a sermon. Jesus apparently designs that it should not be so rare. He includes it in His prayer so that we might likewise pray at least as regularly as we normally pray. For the Christ-follower, that means daily at least! 

One might not think we really need daily deliverance from the demonic. Yet how often are we tricked into believing an untruth? Even if we reject the very great majority of them, the reality is that virtually no one has a worldview that is entirely Kingdom minded. If we did, we would act as Jesus did every day. The fact that we do not is evidence that we have believed and yet believe some things that are just not true.

How often do we respond negatively to what others impose upon us? Yet Jesus did not turn from the lash or the cross. Nor did He use His power to make bread from the stones, but how often do we seek to satisfy ourselves through our own power instead of relying on the goodness of God? He did not presume upon God’s agents of intervention by throwing Himself down from the temple. But how often do we do foolish things for the sheer pleasure of the experience, presuming we will feel no consequence? Promised all the world’s power and wealth, He did not yield to idolatry. Yet we almost daily fall for the allure of want. All that to say nothing of the spiritual forces arrayed against us, or of the wicked plans of demonic beings for our ultimate destruction.

It is true of course that we are saved. For that we are thankful. It is equally true that we are in the process of being saved. In that we must be prayerful. We may be the people of God and children of our heavenly Father, but until the day that we are set completely free from our fallen fleshly state, we stand daily in need of deliverance as much as the Israelites in Egypt did.

Amen.

Not only do we have Jesus to intercede for us to protect us from the enemy, but we ourselves are also to ask God to keep us safe from the enemy’s hand.

R. C. Sproul

APPLICATION: Intentionality

We do not know what we will face in the next 24 hours. Pray that God would keep the evil one far from you and your house.

God does not tempt His people. We know this for certain because James 1  says, “When  tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.” All the same, Jesus encourages us to pray, “And lead us not into temptation.” 

As true as it is that God does not tempt, it is likewise true that mankind is sinful. While those who accept the new covenant in Christ are justified before God because of Jesus’ work on the cross for us, and while we are sanctified by the Spirit’s presence in our lives, we yet live in fallen human flesh on this side of the resurrection. Consequently, there are still all-too-human tendencies and habits that every child of God leans into that dishonour His Name. Some are ingrained habits that we know are wrong but find very difficult to break. We call those ‘besetting sins’. Others we are ignorant of, though we commit them regularly. Like a subtle dependence on our own righteousness (instead of His), they are invisible to both us and those around us. Yet all of them are personal impurities that God would have us set free of. 

There is only one way to get rid of such impurities – we must find them out and ask God to put them under the blood of Christ, washing them away forever. The strategy for dealing with them is straightforward. The challenge is finding them out that we might effect the strategy. This we do either by ourselves in the presence of God (often in a time of prolonged prayer). Or we wait till the impurity inevitably is brought to light by trial. 

Obviously the first is the better course of action. Waiting for a trial – a testing of our faith – is not the wisest course of action. Both because they are difficult to endure and because trials are always in sight of other created beings. But our impurity will be brought to light nevertheless. God will not suffer forever our willful ignorance and inattention. Christ will make His bride the Church ready, even if it means bringing us through difficult and stressful situations. All must be made pure. The sanctified must be thoroughly sanctified. 

Jesus the Son of God, sanctified by the Spirit already upon Him at His baptism, “was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.” The Spirit led Him into the desert, where He fasted for 40 days and nights and then was tempted by the devil. Jesus endured both a long introspection before God and a severe trial. A most harsh and thorough trial it was too, to be in direct confrontation with the most vile and deceptive of spirits. 

Yet Jesus persevered and was proven blameless throughout both His prolonged fasting and His trial. There were no points of impurity brought to the surface in either, for He had none. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He endured it all in willful submission, that He might be tested as all flesh is tested.

Galatians 3:26 says, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” We are God’s children by faith, and God our Father will have us cleansed of all impurity that we might stand before Him and walk with Him in perfect fellowship for eternity to come. Yet we know we are full of impurities, so it is far better for us to ask Him to not lead us into temptation. We can instead prayerfully ask Him to search us by His Spirit (who searches all things, even the deep things of God) in gentleness and grace. That we might be shown whatever impurity lies deep within. So that we might confess it to Him, so that He might put it away from us forever by the blood Jesus shed for us on the cross. 

Amen. 

We Christians must look sharp that our Christianity does not simply refine our sins without removing them.

A.W. Tozer

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Plan a spiritual retreat to spend time in reflection before God. Ask the Spirit to search you thoroughly. Confess any revealed sin to God. Thank Him for His gift of refinement.

Psalm 41 was written by King David. He wrote, “O Lord, have mercy on me;  heal me, for I  have sinned against you.” David understood that mercy, healing and forgiveness all have the same root. They all spring up out of love for the other. Yet mercy cannot be fully exercised if there is unforgiveness, and healing cannot be acted on without mercy first. So forgiveness has its place as the first expression of love, most especially for those whom we do not naturally love. It is, if you will, the least expression of God’s love. 

For this reason it is God’s least expectation of His people. They should – as His people – manifest this aspect of His character as a bare minimum. It may be a bit much for any parent to expect their children to exhibit the more subtle aspects of adult character, but it is not too much to expect them to at least pick up their most common behaviour. And if our creator God has ever demonstrated anything to us as His children, it is forgiveness. 

He demonstrated it in approaching Adam and Eve in the garden, calling out to them after they had willfully and deliberately sinned against Him. He demonstrated it in calling to Noah, even though Noah’s whole people group had descended into thinking “only evil all the time”. He demonstrated it to Terah’s generation, scattering them and blessing them with various languages instead of destroying them at Babel.

He demonstrated it to Abram, forgiving him for fathering Ishmael when he was promised a son through Sarah. He demonstrated it to Isaac, who lied to the people of Gerar. He demonstrated it to Jacob, who took advantage of his brother and lied to his father.

He demonstrated it to Moses, who killed the Egyptian. He demonstrated it to Aaron, who made the golden calf. He demonstrated it to the Israelites, who acted shamefully at Mount Sinai. He demonstrated it to Israel as a nation, who fell into idolatry over and over during the time of the Judges. He demonstrated it to Saul, who He let live and reign, even though he was double-minded. He demonstrated it to David, who committed adultery and first degree murder.

He demonstrated it to Peter, who denied Him three times over, and He demonstrated it to Paul, who severely persecuted God’s people.

In fact, the whole of the Scripture is a story of God forgiving us, of God delaying judgment in hope of our repentance, of God giving sinful mankind days, months, years and even decades to turn from sin. It is the story of God giving entire people groups generation upon generation to stop their idolatry and to turn to Him as God only. The pages of the Bible drip with forgiveness, compassion, mercy and love. 

So when Jesus tells us to pray, “Forgive us our debts,” it is not surprising to hear Him add the clause, “as we also have forgiven our debtors.”  In expressing an assumed forgiveness of our fellow sinners in His template for prayer, Jesus clearly communicates the idea; Forgiveness is the litmus test. If we are truly God’s, we must – as a bare minimum – truly forgive just as God forgave us. In fact, we are only forgiven as we have forgiven others because God expects His own to act as He does.

We become like the people we think about the most. If you dwell upon past hurts, you become just like those who hurt you. Hurt people hurt people.

Anonymous

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Who have you forgiven? Who do you need to forgive?