God hears more than our words, He listens to our hearts.
Our Daily Bread 10-27-04
For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. Matthew 6:14-15 NAS
This is a very important part of prayer. I know that this Scripture doesnt appear to be on the subject of prayer, but it is. Jesus had gone up on a mountain and was teaching to a large crowd of people. When He came to the subject of prayer, he said that you should be humble and not prideful about prayer, you should do it in secret if you can, and you should not use the same words over and over in a meaningless way. Jesus then gave the people an example of a complete prayer. We call this prayer the Lords Prayer. Right in the middle of the short prayer Jesus says we should ask for forgiveness and to forgive others, and then after the prayer He goes on to say that if we dont forgive others we will not be forgiven. I ask myself why is forgiveness so important? Why does my whole relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, depend on how I feel about other people? I ask myself, if I have something against someone that I hold on to, do I still have favor with God? Jesus says the answer is no! I ask why? In trying to understand this principle I realize that prayer is not so much a matter of words, but a matter of our heart. God listens to our hearts, and if the heart is preoccupied with some resentment, than the true message to God is not very clear, no matter how beautiful the words are that we pray. Forgiveness is such a powerful principle that works more than one way. It works all ways and always. Forgiveness heals my relationship with others, it heals my relationship with God and it brings healing to myself. Our own inner healing is seen in the serenity that we experience in our lives. Today I choose serenity over resentments. God is doing for me what I could not do for myself JRE
Our Daily Bread 10-27-04
For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. Matthew 6:14-15 NAS
This is a very important part of prayer. I know that this Scripture doesnt appear to be on the subject of prayer, but it is. Jesus had gone up on a mountain and was teaching to a large crowd of people. When He came to the subject of prayer, he said that you should be humble and not prideful about prayer, you should do it in secret if you can, and you should not use the same words over and over in a meaningless way. Jesus then gave the people an example of a complete prayer. We call this prayer the Lords Prayer. Right in the middle of the short prayer Jesus says we should ask for forgiveness and to forgive others, and then after the prayer He goes on to say that if we dont forgive others we will not be forgiven. I ask myself why is forgiveness so important? Why does my whole relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, depend on how I feel about other people? I ask myself, if I have something against someone that I hold on to, do I still have favor with God? Jesus says the answer is no! I ask why? In trying to understand this principle I realize that prayer is not so much a matter of words, but a matter of our heart. God listens to our hearts, and if the heart is preoccupied with some resentment, than the true message to God is not very clear, no matter how beautiful the words are that we pray. Forgiveness is such a powerful principle that works more than one way. It works all ways and always. Forgiveness heals my relationship with others, it heals my relationship with God and it brings healing to myself. Our own inner healing is seen in the serenity that we experience in our lives. Today I choose serenity over resentments. God is doing for me what I could not do for myself JRE
