Hello
Have you had an experience which you tried to redeem, by looking for the bright side or the worthwhile lesson, to no avail? What do you do in those situations? Isn’t it great to know that God always deems us redeemable?
Here’s today’s nougat
Today, give us what we need, and divorce our sins from our relationship with you, even as we overlook the wrong meted out to us by others. Lead us not into temptation. Luke 11:3-4
In most translations of The Prayer, the word “and” is carefully stitched after the request for our natural daily inheritance; placing it squarely before the request for forgiveness.
When used in this way, the ‘AND’ indicates equal value between the concepts being discussed. That is, the mutuality of forgiveness has equal weight as our request for daily provision of our needs. Hmmmn. Considering the Bible’s clarity on God’s willingness to supply our physical, emotional, material, mental and spiritual needs; it is very fair to recognize that forgiveness is also readily available for each of us. That is NOT cheap grace.
Ironically, in The Prayer, we add yet another critical conditionality – we tie God’s forgiveness of OUR sins to our forgiveness of OTHERS. What a prekkeh! A church sister would say, we take our teeth tie knots that our tongues can’t pull.
Do we DARE harbour unforgiveness while seeking forgiveness, or even God’s daily provision of our needs? Give us … and forgive … as we/because we – I’m not certain which is weightier. Do we wish God to forgive according to our forgiving nature? Could be spiritually fatal. Or would we rather forgiveness in line with the frequency of our forgiving others?
Lord have mercy!
In Christ’s love and grace . . .
