The Lord’s Prayer (Part 10) – Forgive us!

Powerpoint Pictures: Child hitting their brother; Pinocchio; Child disrespecting parent; Swearing symbolised

Are the following people guilty of doing something wrong?

Child hitting their brother? Yes!

Someone who tells a lie? Yes!

Child who disobeys their parents? Yes!

A person who swears and uses bad language? Yes!

What do people who are guilty of doing something wrong need?  They need forgiveness.  To forgive means that if someone does something wrong that hurts you, you do not hold it against them.

Every time we do something wrong (what the Bible calls sin) we hurt God and fail to treat Him as He deserves.  We build up a debt that we owe to God.  We need to be forgiven and wonderfully because Jesus died on the cross to pay the debt we owe, we can be.

When Jesus teaches us to pray, He gives us a prayer to pray.

In this prayer He tells us to pray that God will be glorified, that He will show how special He is, as people are saved by His Son Jesus and those who have been saved obey everything Jesus has commanded them.

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…” (Matthew 6:9-10)

He also tells us to pray for three things we need each day.

The first thing we are to ask is for Him to provide for all our needs: “Give us today our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11).

He then says we need to ask Him to forgive us for all our sins and to trust that He can and He will.  Then to show we have been forgiven we are to forgive others.

Pray, “Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12)

So when we pray, let’s ask God to forgive us for all our sins trusting that He will because Jesus has paid the debt we owe because of them. Pray forgive us our debts.