In Matthew 6 Jesus teaches us how to pray and it’s here we receive the Lord’s Prayer, as it has been named, or the Our Father. This prayer of Jesus is stunning, because Jesus links it to forgiveness at the end of this in verses 14 and 15. “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Prayer and forgiveness are a dynamite duo and they are not just linked by virtue of what they are, but who they are. One is talking to God about many things that we desire or want. The other is an attitude of heart that determines whether God is going to answer the prayers you just prayed! They are inextricably linked. Forgiveness is a powerful manifestation of love. It is an indicator of maturity, obedience, and more! But the big thing that is highlighted in this message, is that our ability to flow in forgiveness is linked to our prayers not being hindered and our lives being radically blessed. Forgiveness is a life skill, and is based on a spiritual principle that if we sow we will reap. Henry Wright says: “our forgiveness from God the Father begins vertically, to the degree that we make it work horizontally.” Again in John 20:23 Jesus takes this further by linking us as family in the culture of forgiveness! “If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven, if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven!” Beloved, if we retain or hold on to judgements towards others, we will find that our sin is a stumbling block to their healing! How can that be? Because we are one in the Spirit! your healing and my healing are linked! We are a body of believers and our hearts are one. So let us go on to maturity, let us learn the deeper end of the pool of love and forgiveness and let us learn and re-learn how to be a people of the heart who keep no record of wrongs, no lists of grievances, no book of debts and no remembrance of the hurts. Keep letting it all go!