Matthew 5:14-15

14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. - Matthew 5:14-15

Dear Jesus,

I know that you have fully and freely forgiven of all my sins.  But at first glance at this verse following the Lord's Prayer, it looks like you are making my forgiveness conditional on how well I forgive others.  I have meditated on these words for years.  I understand it like getting a gift from someone but never talking it out of the box.  You don't give forgiveness for nothing.  You intend for it to totally change the way I look at life and people.  If I accept forgiveness from you but refuse it to anyone else, it denies the power of your love to change me.  I don't want to do that.  Help me Jesus to forgive everyone just as freely as you did from the cross.  When I struggle with forgiveness, help me work through my anger until it's all washed away at the foot of your cross. 

Amen

Pastor Don Patterson

Grace changes us into forgiving people or it rolls off our back and way from our lives.  

Additional Reading: Matthew 18, Ephesians 4:32