Today we will look at the phrase from The Lord’s Prayer,
“Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our
debtors”. Up until this point in the prayer the focus has been squarely on God
and His power. But now the focus is going to shift slightly to God and His
provision for our needs. The key word here is “needs”; Jesus describes it as
“daily bread”, a metaphor for necessities rather than luxuries. Proverbs 30:8
gives us some great insight as to how we should pray for our needs, “Give me
neither poverty (lest I resent you) or riches (lest I forget you).” Our Heavenly
Father’s desire is for us to trust Him with every need of our life. He is a
good Father. The second part of this phrase concerns our relationships with
others. Jesus rightly links our relationship with God to our relationship with
others. We should always be keenly aware of the sin in our own lives, and not
just the sin in the lives of others. We should always remember that the cross,
on which Jesus died, was composed of two beams. There was a vertical and
horizontal beam. The vertical beam secured our restored relationship with our
Father God. Perhaps the more difficult of the two beams was the horizontal beam
that Jesus was forced to carry on His back on the way to the top of the
mountain. This horizontal beam represents our human relationships that Jesus
through His sacrifice on the cross, graciously restored. So now that we have
been forgiven we should be willing to forgive others. If God through Christ has
so powerfully forgiven us, shouldn’t we be willing to extend that grace and
forgiveness to others? May we rejoice today in the provision and forgiveness
given to us by our great God through Jesus Christ!
1. What
is the difference in a need and a want? Are you trusting God for your needs, or
complaining because He hasn’t granted all of your wants?
2. In
what ways does being forgiven by God change or improve your relationships with
others?
3. Is
there someone you need to forgive?
No comments :
Post a Comment