Forgiveness

I have been meditating on The Lord's Prayer lately. It is a wonderful favorite, but with a VERY scary line: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
REALLY? God CANNOT be serious that He will only forgive us as we forgive others. I mean, He is God. He can do anything, including forgiving all the lying, heartless, schemers of the earth. Surely He doesn't expect us, mere mortals, to do the same?

Except...He does.

So I kept praying that He would grant me the supernatural power to forgive. And instead of Him granting that request, He kept pointing me back to how much I have been forgiven. Dwell there, He kept telling me. And I have been resisting, because dwelling there is NOT FUN.

But something clicked yesterday. LOOK at all I have of which I've been forgiven; all the horrific sins against God that I have committed for nearly six decades. Every single one of them, washed away, remembered no more. Ever.

I felt the first real sense of what it means to forgive. It was one of the most liberating experiences of my life. I highly recommend it.
******************

Ephesians 4:32 

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Mark 11:25 

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.”

1 John 1:9 

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Matthew 6:15

But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Matthew 18:21-22 

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.

Matthew 6:14-15 

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

James 5:16

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Luke 6:27 

“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

Colossians 3:13 

Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.