[Jesus said] “Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’ For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:9-15 ESV).
Jesus’ teaching here at the end of the Lord’s Prayer might be confusing. It almost sounds as if we must earn God’s forgiveness by forgiving others. But we also know that through faith in Jesus, we are already forgiven by God (cf. Acts 2:38; Romans 3-8). So, we need a different kind of thinking here. Think of an old kitchen sponge that hasn’t been used for a long time. When you put it under the tap, the water runs right over the sponge. But if you set the sponge in a bucket of water for a few minutes, it softens and becomes usable again.
Our hearts can be like that too. When we hold onto resentments and bitterness, nursing our anger, we can become as hard as a rock, and God’s grace for us will be like water running over a rock. It doesn’t soak in. But when we are open to forgiving others, we become soft like a moistened sponge. The Lord’s deep grace soaks in and saturates our hearts, and we become available to share his grace. Just as a wet sponge moistens other things when it touches them, we can share grace, helping to wipe others’ dirt away as we forgive others. The Apostle Paul wrote: “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” (Colossians 3:13). Dying to our accumulated resentment, anger, and bitterness softens our hearts to receive God’s amazing grace.
So many difficulties in our lives could be eliminated simply through forgiveness of others. Remember this is not accepting their wrongs but releasing them from the debt of those wrongs. That debt doesn’t really belong to us anyway. Jesus purchased it along with ours on the cross through His death. Perhaps there are some who you have yet to release. Stop holding on to those old hurts and receive the freedom Jesus gives us through forgiveness.