2006-06-30
Good Morning Dear Ones,
The Spirit leads me to continue just a bit more about the fifth index sentence of the Lord's Prayer [MT 6: 9-13]. We've been looking at the index sentences used to teach people in the past how to say the Lord's Prayer and its meaning. Remember these index sentences and what they express: "Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name..." [worship]; "Thy Kingdom come..." [allegiance]; "Thy will be done..." [submission]; "Give us this day our daily bread..." [petition]; "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us..." [confession]. Last week I wrote about the link between our willingness to forgive others and God's willingness to forgive us.
One more aspect of this fifth index sentence that is worthy of some of our thought is why some people resist being forgiving. We must examine the truth of MT 6: 14-15, "If you forgive others the wrongs they have done to you, your Father in heaven will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive the wrongs you have done." When you boil things down to their essence, this kind of trouble, refusing to forgive, originates with refusal to submit to God's teaching. Pride, stubbornness, selfish ambition, and many other manifestations of the devil's work can be motivators. The person refusing to forgive wants God's blessings on his own terms, rather than God's. And, that's not the way things work. One example of this from the Bible is found in MT 12: 38-42. This is where some Pharisees demanded that our Lord Jesus perform a miracle. These teachers of the law had a definite grudge against Christ, because they didn't recognize Who He is. All they wanted to do was to expose Christ as a fake. Instead, Christ uses the example of Jonah to teach them that God's will shall be done and not theirs.
I was in an intergenerational class the other day for Sunday School with some other adults and a number of young people. The lesson began with the episode of the old Andy Griffith show where young Opie kills a mother bird with his sling shot. In the beginning, he tried to hold his sin not confessed inside. But, it was tearing him apart. When his father mentioned the dead bird he found outside, a sullen Opie rushed from the table to his room. Later when his father, who had already figured out the truth of what happened came into his room, Opie could hold back no more, confessed, and asked his father what his punishment would be. His father opened the window so that Opie could hear the plaintive cheeps of the baby birds whose mother would never return to them. That's when Opie got the idea to take care of them until they were ready to fly. I couldn't help thinking: Isn't that what God does for us? Doesn't he give us enough conscience to feel the awful load of sin not confessed, so that we will take the right path, His path? There is nothing more relaxing than a clear conscience. The stress and angst of unconfessed sin is unbearable and can gone. As we understand from MT 5: 23-24, we can finally offer our gift to God.
One other aspect of this discussion must be the great sacrifice that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, made for us on the cross. We are born sinners. Our sin is both inherited and committed by us. Christ understood this and knew that the Father had called Him to go to the cross, to give us a way out of the awful snare the devil had set for us. We need only look at LK 22: 42-44 to get a view of the anguish He endured on our behalf before He went to the cross. "'Father,' He said, 'if You will, take this cup of suffering away from Me. Not My will, however, but Your will be done.' An angel from heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him. In great anguish He prayed even more fervently; his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." Of course, this was only the beginning of wave after wave of suffering our Lord would endure, culminating with His painful death on the cross, three days in hell, and finally His blessed resurrection. Why did Christ do this? So that our past sins could be forgiven. Even now, when we discover we are sinning and stop that behavior, we are forgiven. Surely, all of that warrants our willingness to submit to God rather than give in to pride, ambition, or whatever other evil fuels us to refuse to forgive! The truth is that we really owe it to Christ to be forgiving.
PRAYER: O Lord, as we examine the issue of forgiveness, we must understand Your will and submit to it. As hard as this may be for us at times, it will bring us so many blessings in the end that we may even question why we held on to our grudges in the first place. The most obvious blessing of being forgiving is the "peace that goes beyond all human understanding" [PHIL 4: 7] that you give to us when we submit to Your will. What this reveals about You is Your own forgiving nature, Your patience with us, and Your amazing compassion. We are so blessed to have a Deity like You. After spending this time You have commanded on the Lord's Prayer, we will never be able to say it by rote without dwelling on its meaning again. What great wisdom You imparted to the Son when He gave us this teaching! You know the release from angst we experience when we finally submit to Your will. David wrote in PS 32: 1, "O, what joy for those whose rebellion is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight!" Previously, in PS 25: 18, this very faithful and yet, at times dysfunctional man wrote, "Look on my affliction and my pain, and forgive all my sins." David had much affliction and pain as Saul persecuted and chased him all around the countryside. He had indeed committed many sins, including murder and adultery. David knew that all forgiveness has its origin in You. Second CH 7: 19 is some early truths from You, "If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their mind." Dearest Abba, You give Your people a view of Yourself through Your word. PS 86: 5, 7, "You are good to us and forgiving, full of constant love for all who pray to You...I call to You in times of trouble, because You answer my prayers." We learn also about Your will from Paul, in COL 3: 13, "Be tolerant with one another and forgive one another whenever any of You has a complaint against someone else. You must forgive one another just as the Lord has forgiven you." We thank and praise You for making Your will clear to us, for being the forgiving and loving God that You are, and for being the Source of all that is good on earth. It is our desire to submit to Your will, learn to be forgiving (if we are not already so), and take whatever action is necessary to clean the sin out of our lives. We love You, Dear Father, and we worship You. In Christ's mighty and holy name, we pray. Amen.
Next week, I am led to discuss the sixth index sentence of the Lord's Prayer. "And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil..." This is an expression of deliverance, the kind only God can give us. As a person who came to faith relatively late in my life [I was in my late twenties], I can appreciate the great contrast between my past life and my present one. The contrast is so great that with perfect twenty/twenty hindsight, I have trouble understanding my long-held resistance to submitting to God. As a believer, when trouble happens, I know I can turn to God for help. PS 46: 1, "God is our Shelter and our Strength, always ready to help in times of trouble." Beforehand, I felt hopelessness and that there was no one to whom I could turn. When my grandmother, who I adored, passed away suddenly, I was asked to help make the arrangements. My mother (her daughter) was traveling in Europe at the time, so she was unavailable. After the funeral was over, I felt empty and alone, because that was before I knew that God was calling me to faith in Him. No one should ever have to feel this way in this situation. At the time, I had no deliverance from my grief in the knowledge that my grandmother was in a better place with God. I surely didn't have the promise that with endurance in my own faith, our separation would only be temporary. Now I know that our Lord, Who is always just and loving, has a plan for good traditional Jews like my grandmother. She never had the chance to know about the Lord Jesus in her time, but God has a way to deal with that. MT 17: 3, the appearance of Moses and Elijah in the transfiguration gives me proof of that. By coming to faith in Christ and submitting to God, I have the assurance that all will work itself out in the end. In the meanwhile, I no longer must feel that awful empty loneliness that those without Christ must endure. Hopelessness is no longer a part of my life. With faith in Christ, it doesn't have to be a part of anyone's life. That is one of the great blessings of faith in the Lord, one of those blessings He is eager to give each one of us.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn