Forgive me as I forgive others

Please click on the words in pink and verses from the Bible will pop up in a new tab. This is to show you that I am not just making this stuff up.

I have woken this morning thinking about the times in my life I have fallen short of what I think God expects of me. You will  notice that the Bible uses two different words here to describe our sins, the more familiar trespasses and debts. Debts in the Greek means to fail in ones duty towards and is more to do with religious and moral failings, while trespasses means to fail to do what you want to do or to behave in a way you want others to. So Jesus covered all ideas of sin in covering our failing to live out our faith in terms of our religious behaviour as well as in our relationships with other people.

Jesus called his followers to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect which is both impossible and something to really work on. Earlier in the same chapter Jesus called to remember that we are spiritually poor because then we will know God's blessing. This means that as we acknowledge our own inability to live up to God's expectations and remember that no one can do it! So we forgive others and receive our own forgiveness and we will be on the road to perfection.

I personally reckon that this is wonderful and try to make it true in every part of my life. If someone behave in a way that I don't like I reckon that they can't help it and so forgive them. Easier to do sometimes than others. But it is so much less burdensome than blaming them for their behaviour and letting a rift appear in a relationship. God wants us to get along with each other and to leave the detail of the changes in our behaviour to him. He will change us in the big things as we let go of the little things.

There is no harm in praying for someone I forgive him/her for ***** please change them so they no longer behave life this. Jesus was asked by the Apostle Peter how many time should I forgive my brother when he sins  against me? In the Greek a third word is used for sin, it means missing the mark and even not winning the prize. This is a very high level of expectation for one person to have of another. It is like saying my brother has not lived up to every inch of my expectation, what should I do. You should know that the number 7 represents a very high number but Jesus says not 7 times but 77 which means you should go on forgiving without counting.

So please practice forgiving those near you and those who come across your path and then you will be forgiven.