“One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Luke 11:1
To respond to that question, Jesus then shared a model prayer that demonstrated a progression of perspectives that could and should change the way we pray today.
Jesus prayed, “Forgive us our sins” (Luke 11:4).
There are two things that we need to assume before we can pray with that perspective.
#1 – We are not perfect.
While this may come as a shock to some of you, most of us know that we are not perfect. We have our issues, our own brand of crazy, and our own personal brokenness.
Can we drop our guard a little? We can act like we’re perfect a lot of the times, can’t we?
We argue about who being right, often assuming our rightness over others. We hate to admit our mistakes. For many of us, the absolute worst thing that could happen would be that someone knows your weaknesses and flaws.
We may not “think” we’re perfect, but we sure do act like we are sometimes.
#2 – God is willing to and wants to forgive us.
It’s remarkable to me that so many people do not believe that God should or would want to forgive them. They know the depth of their failure and have put themselves outside the compassion of God.
That is not true of any of us.
Perhaps the worst crime in history was the execution of Jesus, the Son of God himself. And as Jesus looked upon the men murdering Him, he pled with the Father to “forgive them.” (reference Luke 23:34)
If we realize that we are not perfect and that God is the kind of God who is willing to and wants to forgive us, what happens?
We seek His forgiveness in prayer.
Have you ever apologized to someone, received their forgiveness, and had a relationship restored? I have. It’s an amazing thing.
You know what’s unexpected? You’re closer after. Grace and forgiveness facilitate intimacy.
God knows that. He wants to be close to us. That’s exactly why He wants us to seek His forgiveness!
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What do you need God to forgive you of today?
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