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

Hmmm.

Does that mean our being forgiven by God is contingent upon us forgiving those who have sinned against us?

Yup.

Really?

Yup.

Jesus says, in the next sentence, “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:13-15).

When God forgives us our sins, he tells us that he has removed the sin so far away from us that it is as if they had never happened. We are told, “As far as the East is from the West so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). God is able to forgive and forget.

But for us, when it comes to forgiving those who have sinned against us, it doesn’t quite work that way. We are commanded to forgive, but we have a very difficult time forgetting. The scars are there. Whenever someone touches the scar, we are reminded of the pain all over again.

So what do we do with that? How can we forgive when it’s difficult to forget? That’s a great question.

Don’t weaponize the memory.

What I mean by that is that when someone hurts us, the memory is stored in such a way that when they hurt us again, we bring that right back up to hurt them back.

When we forgive someone, we are refusing to weaponize such memories. We are refusing to use past memories to harm and damage another. We are choosing to let go of the power to use past memories as a weapon against another. That’s forgiveness.

The prayer we have been studying is known as the Lord’s Prayer. I said at the beginning of our study that this can’t be the Lord’s Prayer. It can’t be the Lord’s Prayer because Jesus could not have prayed this prayer. Jesus was sinless. This prayer is the prayer which Jesus taught his disciples to pray. This is the Disciple’s Prayer.

We pray this prayer – “Forgive us our debts” – because we are repeat sinners.

God has forgiven us of our sins. Not just today’s sins but all our sins. Because God has forgiven us, we have the audacity to pray, “Our Father,” for that’s who God is to those who have received Jesus as Lord and Savior. Our standing as children of God cannot ever be taken away. There is nothing that can change our standing before God as his children. Although our standing as God’s children cannot be taken away, the presence of sin damages our relationship with God.

There are times when my children do things that hurt me. But there is nothing they can ever do to change the fact that they are my children. So it is with God and us.

If God has forgiven us our sins why then do we keep praying, “Forgive us our debts”?

Because we are repeat sinners.

It’s like taking a shower or a bath. Why do we take a shower or bath when we’ve already showered or bathed? Because we keep getting dirty.

There is no shame in asking for forgiveness when we sin. It would be a crying shame when we don’t ask for forgiveness when we have been dirtied and tainted by sin. We will continue to wrestle with sin until the day we die. That we wrestle with sin, that we are bothered by sin, that we don’t like the presence of sin in our lives is a good thing. It would be terrible if we weren’t bothered by sin.

Father, forgive us our sins. We are repeat sinners in need of your forgiveness once again. Wash us anew and cleanse us from our sin.

There are three things I would like for us to notice about this prayer.

1. Give us this day our daily bread
2. Give us this day our daily bread
3. Give us this day our daily bread

First, much of the American Christianity is expressed and experienced from the perspective of the individual. The Lord’s Prayer doesn’t want any part of that. Remember, “Our Father…” And now, “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Think about your prayer language, how much of our prayers are about us? My needs, my wants, my desires, my wishes, my hopes.

Jesus teaches us to take a broader perspective. The Christian life is lived in community. We were created for community. It is in community we will fully discover our place and role. So it is quite right that we pray “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Secondly, Jesus commands us to pray for our daily bread. Notice it’s not our weekly supply of bread, or our yearly need. We are commanded to pray for our daily need.

This is reminiscent of the feeding of the Israelites in the wilderness with manna. The manna was for the day. It was not permitted to grab more than what one needed for the day. You couldn’t save manna. You needed to go out every day to get what you needed for the day. Manna that was saved for later rotted.

God gives us what we need for the day. What God gives us for the day is to be used up and spent for that day.

Finally, bread. At the most basic level this is speaking about physical bread, the bread that we need for nourishment. At the same time, the bread Jesus offers us is a spiritual bread. This is the bread Jesus promised that once we taste of it, we will never hunger again. There is a spiritual hunger for meaning, purpose, and identity. We find that in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only one who can fulfill that longing and hunger.

So, pray every day: “Give us this day our daily bread.”