Who wouldn’t know this prayer?
Mt 6:6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. 7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. 9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
“Our Father, forgive me just like I forgive to others…” Easy to say, yet not always easy to do so from the bottom of our heart. Especially when someone hurts so badly those we love dearly. But if we don’t find the courage to do that we will become mentally lifelong invalids and those around us will suffer with us!
What you are going to see is based on true story and it’s happening every day in thousand forms! May this story give you courage and strength to be released from this hate-grip…
I don’t know if you can find more moving story about forgiveness in the Bible than the story of Joseph and his brothers who almost killed him. In fact, they did worst than that! They sold him to slavery, which might be considered much worst than death. Yet after many many years the story turns around, but meanwhile Joseph won the victory over such hateful thoughts and understood that GOD Himself allowed such situation to change the hearts of his selfish brothers and his and thus give them opportunity to experience the same transformation as their father Jacob did:
Gen 45:1 Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried: Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. 2 And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. 3 And Joseph said unto his brethren: I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence. 4 And Joseph said unto his brethren: Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said: I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. 5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. 6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. 7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and He hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. 9 Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him: Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt: come down unto me, tarry not: 10 And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children’s children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast: 11 And there will I nourish thee; for yet there are five years of famine; lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty. 12 And, behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you. 13 And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen; and ye shall haste and bring down my father hither. 14 And he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck, and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck. 15 Moreover he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them: and after that his brethren talked with him.
I was crying reading this! I long for this moment in my own life… Perhaps you too.
Name Jacob means Deceiver and that’s what his life was about in the critical moments. Even he was more spiritual minded than his brother Esau yet he wanted to gain God’s blessings by deceit! What a bitter life he had to go through, deceived also by Laban, his father in law and live with two wives… Yet at last he met Jesus in Person and after wrestling with Him he prevailed and received a new name ISRAEL.
Gen 32:24 And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a Man with him until the breaking of the day. 25 And when He saw that he prevailed not against him, He touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as He wrestled with him. 26 And He said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me. 27 And He said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. (Deceiver) 28 And He said: Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. 29 And Jacob asked Him, and said: Tell me, I pray Thee, Thy name. And He said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after My name? And He blessed him there.
Same with his sons. All life spent in guilt and pain softened their hearts and even as hard as it was to believe that Joseph forgave them they found peace at last. Last book of the Bible says:
Rev 21:10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; 12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.
Each one of us have some character weakness we need to overcome! May the LORD help us to gain precious victories within ourselves that we can help others on their way to heaven.
……..
By the way, I was told that Jewish Rabbis actually believe in two different Messiahs. One is called Messiah ben Joseph – the Suffering Messiah. And the second one is called Messiah ben David – Messiah who will come as the King!
We believe that there are not two different Messiahs but only One who came first as Messiah Ben Joseph – the Suffering Messiah (Son of Joseph) and now we expect Him to come at His second Advent as the Messiah Ben David! (Son of David) Halleluyah! He is that Lion who came first as a Lamb:
Rev 5:1 And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? 3 And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. 4 And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. 5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. 6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.