Weekly Devotion no 14
3 July 2020
Bible reading – Matthew 6:9-13
9 ‘This, then, is how you should 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 today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.”
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.”
Reflection - And forgive us our debts
Just
as bread is a basic physical need, the fifth petition in the Lord’s prayer reminds
us that forgiveness is a basic spiritual need.
No
matter how good we might think we are, we all fall short of what God wants from
us: we either do things that displease him or we don’t do the good things that
he would like us to do. None of us is perfect – Jesus is the only one who has
never sinned. It’s sin that separates us from God. Jesus died so that our
sins/debts could be forgiven. That is how significant they are: they needed
God’s son to die so that we would no longer be separated from God. This is
extreme and extravagant love. It’s completely undeserved, but freely given. And
so, when we keep sinning, we can come to God, asking for forgiveness, knowing
that he will forgive. In Ephesians we read: “In him [Christ Jesus] we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the
riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.”[1]
But
what if someone has done something to you that seems unforgivable? They might
have really hurt you. You might have been holding that against them for a very
long time, unable to forget the impact their words or actions had on you. Well,
this prayer reminds us that God has forgiven us and so we can forgive others,
even for the most difficult things. Sometimes it’s not humanly possibly to
provide that forgiveness to someone and it only becomes possible through the
gift of God’s grace. And so we pray that God will enable us to forgive others
as he has forgiven us.
Hymn
Verse 1
My faith looks up to thee,
Thou lamb of Calvary,
Saviour divine:
Now hear me while I pray;
Take all my guilt away;
O let me from this day
Be wholly thine.
Verse 2
May thy rich grace impart
Strength to my fainting heart,
My zeal inspire;
As thou hast died for me,
O may my love to thee
Pure, warm, and changeless be,
A living fire.
Verse 3
While life’s dark maze I tread,
And griefs around me spread,
Be thou my guide;
Bid darkness turn to day,
Wipe sorrow’s tears away,
Nor let me ever stray
From thee aside.
Verse 4
When ends life’s transient dream,
When death’s cold, sullen stream
Shall o’er me roll,
Blest Saviour, then, in love,
Fear and distrust remove;
O bear me safe above,
A ransomed soul.
Ray Palmer © 1830 Public Domain CCLI:69198
Prayer
God of
all mercy,
we
humbly admit that we need your help.
We have
wandered from your way.
We have
sinned in thought, word and deed,
and
have failed to do what is right.
You
alone can save us.
Have
mercy on us,
wipe
out our sins and teach us to forgive others.
Bring
forth in us the fruit of your Spirit
that we
may live the new life to your glory.
This we
ask in the name of Jesus our Saviour. Amen.
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