Heart of a Friend

Ep. 18 | Teach Us To Pray | Part 7 | Set the Prisoner Free


Listen Later

Episode 18
Notes Highlights: Set the Prisoner Free (Part 7 - Lord’s Prayer)

If you are a Christ-follower, there can be only one response when other people wound us… forgiveness. The Lord’s Prayer expects it. On this issue we’re all called to be super-heroes.

Anyone thinking seriously about the Lord’s Prayer has to ask, “Is our forgiveness by God conditional upon our forgiveness of others?”

They are inseparably linked. If I am unwilling to extend forgiveness to others, then I cannot have an authentic experience of God’s forgiveness in my own life. The stakes are high.

The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant - Matthew 18 There’s no question about what this means. To accept forgiveness for ourselves and deny it for others involves us in an unresolvable contradiction. “He who cannot forgive others, breaks the bridge over which he himself must travel.” (George Herbert)

We ignore the high cost of un-forgiveness at the peril of our souls…and our bodies too! Research in the field of clinical psychology….By harboring an unforgiving spirit, the one we damage most is, ironically, not the other person, it’s ourselves! “To forgive is to set the prisoner free and then discover the prisoner was you.” (Lewis Smedes)

But what’s at stake is way more than our physical health…our eternal soul is also at risk. God gives us a “pass” on a lot of things. His grace is amazing! But there’s no grace where we are unwilling to extend grace. It’s intrinsic to God’s kingdom and a pre-requisite to participation in it.

Misconceptions:
 
Forgiveness is not an emotion
. It’s a decision. Not warm fuzzy feelings but an act of the will.

Forgiveness is not always instantaneous. Resolving all the residual issues is more of a process and may take a life-time.

Forgiveness is not forgetting. Few people can forget what wounds them. Clara Barton was asked if she didn’t remember a particularly offense. She replied, “No, I distinctly remember forgetting it.” The Bible doesn’t say God forgets our sins, but it does say he remembers them no more. There’s a difference.

Forgiveness is not minimizing the offense.

Forgiveness is not dependent on an admission of guilt by the perpetrator.
We can’t be held hostage to the reluctance of the guilty party to come forward. The only behavior we can control is our own.

A single definition of forgiveness may not be realistic. One size does not fit all.

There are two sides to forgiveness. One is passive - letting go. Choose to surrender your right to anger and retaliation. Choose not to rehearse it. This is the passive side. The other side is more active. These are steps toward normalizing the relationship. This is what God does for us…we escape his judgment and become recipients of his favor.

The most powerful inspiration to forgive comes from our experience at the cross….to forgive cost Jesus everything. Is it too much for him to ask us to forgive others?

What if I can’t bring myself to forgive? One question that helps if you’re stuck here: “If you are unwilling, at this point, to forgive, can you pray for the willingness to become willing? It’s a step in the right direction.

Your relationship with God cannot be divorced from your relationships with other people. We can’t be in a right vertical relationship with our Father, if we are not in a right horizontal relationship with others.

Madam, do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?” (A. Lincoln) 

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Heart of a FriendBy Host : Andy Wiegand

  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9

4.9

33 ratings