14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.REFLECTIONSWritten by Christine MacgeorgeJesus’ conclusion to this segment of teaching about prayer seems to be a very sombre warning and I’ve struggled with it. Here are some thoughts.At the very core of our lives as Christians is our identity as forgiven sinners. We become Christians when we acknowledge that we can’t earn God’s love by anything we do. We need him to forgive us for not living the way he created us to live. And that is only possible because Jesus died for our sin. Our sins. All of them. Once and for all.So, we receive God’s forgiveness by grace, apart from any good works. Done. Surely? Yet here, Jesus seems to say that forgiveness of our sins is conditional upon us forgiving people who have sinned against us. Woah! I can forgive the lady who was very apologetic after running into my already-sore-and-probably-broken toe with her shopping trolley. Just. Through gritted teeth. But the boss who bullied and humiliated me and was never apologetic? And many of us have suffered far more awful, seemingly unforgivable, things at the hands of others. Is Jesus really saying that God won’t forgive us until we’ve come to a place where we can forgive those who have sinned against us?Absolutely not! God’s forgiveness really is 100% by grace alone.Jesus is taking aim at people who think they can receive God’s forgiveness, but still cling onto their own grudges. He’s saying that if you refuse to forgive others, if you think it’s OK to seek payback, then you probably haven’t understood or received God’s forgiveness at all. (If you want to hear Jesus explain this more fully, you could read Matthew 18:21-35.)None of this means that forgiving will be easy or quick for us. For most of us, it’s a life-long struggle! But it’s a struggle that we can bring to God, along with ALL our hurts, doubts, fears and brokenness – and we can trust that he will forgive us even for the times we don’t succeed in forgiving others.So I think we can pray, “Forgive us our sins and work in us to forgive those who sin against us”.ABOUT THE AUTHORChristine is a member of Fairfield Morning churches and is enjoying post-restrictions time with her children and grandchildren and longing for time with our church family.