Forgive Others, It Is Vital

Another day of our spring fundraiser at The Family and so I'm taking a break from the verse by verse exposition of Timothy to share some other devotional thoughts from my journal. (By the way, if you would like to support the ministry of The Family, you can do so at www.supportthefamily.net) Today's Prime Time Devo comes from a journal entry on January 15, 2009 and it concerns the importance of forgiving others. The text is from what we have come to call the Lord's Prayer. Mt 6:9 "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. 14 "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 "But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. We call this the Lord's Prayer but in reality it is our prayer because this is the prayer that Jesus gave us to pray. It's interesting that the only commentary H e gives on the prayer concerns forgiving others (v14,15) This one small part of the prayer (v12b) is pulled out and strongly reiterated! Why? Please note, all other parts of the prayer are about God. Who He is and what He is able and willing to do for us. There is just that one tiny element of the prayer that is about us and what we must be willing to do. We must forgive others! If we don't Jesus makes a stunning proclamation. We will not be forgiven ourselves!. God will not forgive our sins if we fail to forgive the sins of others and make no mistake about it, the unforgiven will not make it into sinless heaven, because their sins still cling to them. This element of forgiveness is so strong in this prayer, that I almost want to say that it is the temptation that we plead with God to not be led into. This is an evil that we need to be delivered from. “Father God, don't allow me to go down the path of unforgiveness. Deliver me from this evil because Jesus said, if I don't forgive others, I will not be forgiven, and consequently disqualified from entering heaven.” Is there any worse evil that can befall man?