A Prayer Warrior keeps sin accounts clear

This is then how you should pray.. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Matthew 6:12 NIV

Principle:  Prayer Warriors keep sin accounts clear.

They make it seem so easy.  Just bring in your title to your car, sign your name in a few areas and walk out with cash. Or maybe you need the money today, so they advance you the cash for your regular paycheck amount.  You walk out with cash, but in reality, you have a debt to pay back that could easily be four, five or even ten times the amount of the original loan.  Regardless of the reasons “why” you made the decision to engage in the debt, you have now become enslaved to the lender. Most of the cash loans prey upon the poor and needy in our society. Many Americans live by the slogan, “I owe, I owe, so it is off to work I go.”  We are way too familiar with debt.

Jesus is the one who connected prayer and forgiveness of sins together.  Think of our life similar to a pipe.  When it is clean, everything flows through our lives easily and unobstructed.  When we sin against God’s standards for living holy, we clog up one end of the pipe.  God wants to connect with us, but that sin is causing a barrier.  It has created a debt toward God that we are unable to pay back.  We can’t remove it by trying to be good enough, acting like it doesn’t exist, or trying to find a way to barter with God.   Only Jesus can remove the sin, because He paid the penalty of the sin which was death. 

The reality of shedding his innocent blood on our behalf, provides the opportunity for our sins to be removed.  We become clean and our debt erased, when we agree with God (confess) that we personally violated His ways for living by following our own ways and ideas.  We lied instead of telling the truth.  We took things that did not belong to us.  We spoke in evil ways about others.  We acknowledge our envy and jealousy.  We engaged in sexual practices before or outside of marriage that God has forbidden.  BUT Jesus can wash all of these away, because He took our place of death when he died on the cross.  We have to ask him to erase our debt.

Equally as important is the other end of our life pipe.  People will mistreat us.  People will say hurtful things about us.  People respond to us with injustice and cruelty.  You may be called names that are unfairly given.  People may lie straight up to your face and steal from you when you are not looking.  They may be unethical employees or unfaithful spouses.  These offenses against you clog up your pipe. 

You might be correct in telling others that you are innocent and did nothing to make the offense happen.  Regardless, they have violated your space and they now “owe” you.  Retaliation is the typical way that we try to extract the debt.  We are going to make them pay.  We think that we should treat them in the same manner that they hurt us.  But Jesus says that the only way to bring the scales back to even is to forgive.

Forgiveness is not condoning.  We are not saying that the person did not flagrantly offend us.  Forgiveness is saying that the person is released of the debt.  We recognize there is no way that a person can “pay us” back.  So, we bring the balance back to zero.  Peter understood the principle, so he asked, “how many times do we have to do this? Seven?”  Jesus replied, “Seventy times seven.”  A number higher than we can keep count.  A number equal to the number of times that we would expect God to forgive us.

Some thoughts about forgiveness.

1.    According to 1 John 1:9 When we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.  Our part is to confess.  We do this for salvation and as often as we sin.  God’s part is His faithfulness.  This means that He will forgive us every time we confess.  Every time means as often as we tell him we blew it again.  He is faithful to do it every time.  He is also righteous.  This means He completely forgives.  He doesn’t do it in a partial way.  He doesn’t withhold forgiveness saying, “Well, I just want to make sure you are serious, so I will only partially forgive you.” No!  He wipes our slate clean.  Just-as-if-I-ed never sinned.

2.    One role of Holy Spirit in our lives is to convict us of our sin.  When we ask Him to show us how we have been living in a way that violates God’s plans for us, He reveals specifically what we have done wrong.  Then it is in our court to seek forgiveness.

3.    When people hurt us, we are expected to forgive.  Just letting it slide is not really forgiveness.  Just giving it time is not forgiveness.  Just saying it is nothing, does not mean we have forgiven them.  There has to be an intentionality in the process of forgiving them.4

4.    Forgiveness toward others starts with us.  We don’t have to wait for them to ask us to forgive.  They may never ask for forgiveness, but we can forgive them first.  Picture stamping on their forehead, FORGIVEN.  This may been very hard.  But our motivation comes from what Jesus has done for us.  With his blood, He has stamped the seal of our salvation over our lives FORGIVEN.  Praise the Lord.     

Father, for some reason we think it is easier for you to forgive us, than it is for us to forgive others.  We really underestimate the sacrifice that Jesus paid for our forgiveness.  We just assume that because you are God, somehow it is easier and just expected that is what is required of you.  The pain of Jesus suffering in the garden the night before he was crucified, gives us a glimpse into the agony of your heart.  Thank you for forgiving us.  Thank you for dying in our place and paying our debt that we owed.  Help us to forgive others who offend us.  Help us not to become stuck in unforgiveness.  Help us keep our accounts clear.  Help us to owe no man but to love them.  In Jesus name, Amen