And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. Mark 11:25
In prayer, many of us tend to simply rattle off a list of things we have done wrong for the day or week, and ask God to forgive us for them. We sometimes think that this is all the forgiveness we believe is needed during our prayer time. This isn’t necessarily wrong, but as this verse points out, there is something we should be doing before we ask God to forgive us of our multitude of sins. We are told to first forgive those we have something against.
There is something that causes sharp division when there is unforgiveness and bitterness. Feelings are hurt or friendships are severed. It might start out small and seem to be nothing, but soon it grows into wrath, bitterness, anger, and slander toward those whom we haven’t forgiven. Make it a part of your daily prayers to think of any person that might have sinned against you making you angry, sad or hurt and forgive them. For most of us, this happens multiple times throughout the day and we neglect to first forgive them in prayer before we ask to be forgiven ourselves. Mark says, “ And whenever you stand praying, forgive.”
Pastor Rowena