Luke 11:1-4 - "As We Also Forgive Everyone..."

To the best of my understanding, here in Luke 11, when thedisciples asked the Lord to teach them how to pray, this was toward the end ofHis first three years of ministry mostly in the region of Galilee. But youmight also remember in Matthew 6, on an earlier occasion at the beginning of Hisministry, as Jesus was giving one of His first recorded sermons, called the “Sermonon the Mount” or the “Beatitudes”, He also taught this model prayer both to themultitude and His disciples. So, this would be the second time that they heardit. In the Matthew passage, the Lord gave even moreinstructions along with this prayer. On both occasions Jesus taught that we areto ask for forgiveness for our sins, which also called our debts or ourtrespasses, from our Father in heaven. I believe this model prayer is primarilygiven for those who have already been saved. We have been born again, we havebeen redeemed, we are in the family of God and that is why we begin the prayerwith “Our Father”.  Now in this prayer, as believers, we are told to keep shortaccounts for those who have sinned against or have offended us. And just as wehave received the Father’s forgiveness, “for we also forgive everyone who isindebted to us.” If you go back to the Matthew 6 passage you will find thatthe Lord also added the instruction: “For if you forgive others theirtrespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do notforgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive yourtrespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15). It becomes clear that we as believers are to keep shortaccounts of those who sinned against us by forgiving them and no longer holdingtheir sin or offence against them. We are able to do this because we have experiencedour Father’s forgiveness. We find this also in Ephesians 4:32; “And be kindto one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christforgave you.”   Again, I repeat that this is primarily for believers whohave already experienced salvation and forgiveness of their sins. We shouldnever make this a condition for a lost sinner to get saved. I’ve never toldsomeone I’m witnessing to, that before they can pray the sinners prayer andreceive Jesus Christ as their Savior that they need to make a list of everyonewho has wronged them and forgive them before they can get saved. It is only afterwe have been forgiven by the grace of God and His mercy through the blood ofJesus Christ, and experienced His resurrection power into a new life, that wehave the ability and grace to then forgive others.  Matthew 18:23-35 gives us a great message on this subjectafter Peter asked the Lord how many times he had to forgive a brother who hadsinned against him. Peter thought he was doing pretty good by saying that seventimes was probably enough. But the Lord responded by saying that that is notenough but you will need to forgive him seventy-times seven. That is 490 times!!!!In other words, you would lose count after the first number of times and everytime you think or experience the pain of the hurt of the offence you must forgiveagain. You remove the offence from their account and not hold it against them.  In Matthew 18:35, Jesus concluded the story of the servant,who after he had been forgiven an unpayable debt by his master, and then refusedto forgive a fellow servant a very small account, and was sent to prison to betortured, with these power words: “So My heavenly Father also will do to youif each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother histrespasses." My friend, this is only possible by God’s grace, and the realityof your experience of forgiveness in Christ. The fact that we can forgiveothers, which is never an easy thing to do, is proof and evidence that we have experiencedGod’s forgiveness for all our sins and have the perfect peace of God in ourhearts. God bless!