Encouraging prayer God offers an open invitation for his people to talk with him at any time about anything. On encouraging prayer, Dr. James Banks, author of the best-selling Prayers for Prodigals and many other books on prayer, provides weekly biblical insight to help you learn to love to pray. And now, here's James. Oh, you're in for a treat today.
We are going to be praying. to forgive. That almost sounds like the impossible dream there, James. Uh Yeah, you know, forgiveness is is tough. In the Tough.
I mean, I found There are times in my life when I think I've forgiven someone and then Yeah yeah. You know, I maybe a month later Uh or a year or years later, I find, ooh, I'm still dealing with this. Or 30 seconds. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, we we wrestle with this. I think of so many times when I have, for example, preached. on forgiveness. as a pastor and people have come up I I really needed to hear that, you know what I mean? I really do because I've preached on it as well, and people have told me.
That was the most impactful sermon I ever heard, and it was on forgiveness. Yeah. In The reason why this matters so much is we have to take what Jesus said about it Seriously. And if you look at what he said in the 18th chapter of Matthew, man, it's scary. I mean, he doesn't take any prisoners.
You know, Peter comes to Jesus and says, how many times Should I forgive my brother or my sister when they sin against me? You know, and you can. narrowing his eyes and and calculating, you know, should I forgive him seven times? And Then Jesus starts telling this. Perable.
And it's the Parable of the unmerciful spirit. Do you remember what happens in it? Yeah. I do, but I don't want to steal your thunder. It's pretty dynamic.
Well, yeah. I mean, basically, here's this servant who has this debt and Uh He goes to the king and Uh he asks for for forgiveness so that he won't be Yeah. thrown into the prison and Um Uh the king forgives him. And then the servant has someone else who Owes him. And you know, it's it's a small it's a pittance by comparison.
And He grabs the man, begins to choke him, pay back what you owe me. And uh you know, he has the man thrown into prison And you can just see this anger and retribution. And then the king finds out. And the king calls the servant in and basically says, What have you done? And Jesus Concludes the parable with these words in Matthew 18, 35.
This is how my Heavenly Father will treat each of you Unless you forgive your brother or sister from the heart. Yeah. Yeah, because it's it's so obvious that Jesus is forgiven us from on Holy, just horrible, horrible things that are in our lives. And then. You know, we're mad over somebody cutting us off in traffic or somebody that owes us money, et cetera, you know, that kind of thing.
Yeah. Yeah. And You know, of course they're also Life hurts. where someone has done us a profound injustice. And And they'd give it intentionally.
And I think those are the hardest. places. And so, you know, when we talk about this, we don't want to We don't want to just say, oh, well, yeah, you just forgive. Uh Sometimes We if we're honest, we can And We can't do it in our own strength. And You know, this is why I think we have to be so careful also when we pray the Lord's Prayer.
Uh forgive us our debts or sins or trespasses, you know. as we forgive. In other words, just like we forgive. Those who sin against us. We cannot pray that prayer honestly each day.
Without examining ourselves and saying, wait a minute. Is there someone that I need to forgive? And You know, I think where this really comes down is. Forgiveness is like a mirror. If if we can't see ourselves in it, then we can't see the person standing beside us.
Either. And often we're so busy looking at them that we don't realize: wait a minute, this is what God has called. Yeah. to do and I have to see myself is forgiven first. Yeah.
See how I I think the only thing we can do is ask. Is is pray for forgiveness. In other words, pray that God will help us. Yeah, as as he brought it up. I actually do try to do that.
When I pray the Lord's Prayer, but your earlier discussion about the real deep hurts, and honestly, the ones that for me, and I imagine for you, or probably a lot of pastors, probably a lot of people in general, are church hurts. Stuff that came from brothers and sisters that that You held very close at one point in time. And yeah, there can there can be that. And then there's a little bit of a twist. Go ahead.
Yeah, well, I was just saying, and then, you know, as you were saying, so I, you know, there's never a morning that I don't say the Lord's Prayer and I don't go right there and say, okay, who am I not forgiving? But man, as you were saying that, all of a sudden, about four or five names creeped into my mind. I'm like, well, I. You know, this is what we're saying to Almighty God. You know, Father, I want you to forgive me just like I forgive.
And Corey Tenboon tells a great story about this, and I share it in my recent book, Peace Through Prayer. Um And she tells about this this guard At the SS camp in Ravensbruk, who had just persecuted. her and her sister, and her sister died there. And years later, she's speaking at this church event and this man comes up. and she recognizes it's the guard and she writes about it.
And let me just read this. She writes, He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing, How grateful I am for your message, Fourline, he said. To think that, as you say, he has washed my sins away. His hand was thrust out to shake mine, and I, who had preached so often to people in Blomendahl, the need to forgive. kept my hand at my side.
Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man. Was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him. Tried to smile.
I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing. not the slightest spark of warmth or charity, and so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I prayed, I cannot forgive him.
Give me your forgiveness. Wow, that's I'm afraid that we just need to pray after that. Yeah. Ah let's do it. Lord, thank you for this message.
Oh my goodness, do I need it? And Lord, I thank you. Um For Corey Tenboon, it's just uh These words are so powerful, Lord. Help me to go there. Help me to ask.
Help me to see. where it is that I am falling short. That I too could truly forgive from the heart. Is something you can help us do? In Jesus' name I pray.
And me too, Lord. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website. JamesBanks.org or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray.
