Giving Before
What does it mean to forgive?
"Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses." - Mark 11:25
When we choose to forgive, we are taking the first step toward righting a wrong, building a bridge, healing a wound.
To say that I will forgive him when he tells me he is sorry, is not as powerful as offering up what is between us before sorrow is presented.
Jesus tells us that we must have faith. We must believe that what we ask for can and will be done. But he also tells us that we must offer our prayers in forgiveness.
If we come to God looking to gain, isn't it best to have nothing against anyone when we do?
For God to take us seriously, we need to be ready to stand before Him without baggage, free of distractions.
When we think of forgiveness, we may think of those people who offer it to those who have committed heinous acts against them or their loved ones. We stand in awe of these people, and yet we may judge them.
How could they?
But what if we were the ones who had done the horrible thing? How would we feel? We believe we would have remorse and we would seek and welcome forgiveness, but would it help to know it was offered?
Living with guilt and shame is painful. Knowing we are forgiven may not make the pain go away.
Each of us has to live with the results of our actions. What we say and do matters. And it stay with us, whether we acknowledge that or not.
In today's reading, Jesus curses a fig tree and it withers and dies. Somehow he turns that into a lesson about forgiveness and prayer. We get the message that what we ask for will happen if we truly believe and if we stand before God forgiving and forgiven.
What we pray for has consequences. So, what should we pray for?
Should we focus our prayers on healing and good?
Each day, before we do anything, we should give of ourselves to others through prayer, seeking and offering that giving self in forgiveness. Then we will be ready to ask.
More to come...