Hosanna Restoration Church

There are a lot of first things in the Bible. There are a multitude of keys for living our lives in Christ Jesus. I often say, “One of the most important things to remember is,” and I usually follow that with the fact that every word of the Word of God is the most important thing. It truly is line upon line, and precept upon precept. One thing we can count on is that God will always provide the thing that is most important to meet the need of the moment!

Having said all of that, let’s look at what Jesus says we need to do first in order to get our prayers answered. This verse comes immediately after Jesus has declared that we can pray for anything if we believe and we will have it. Wow! That sounds great! Can’t you just imagine the crowd standing and applauding as He said that? Well you can at least imagine that there was a buzz in the crowd. Some of them were probably quick to call Him a liar. Others were probably saying that this sounds worth trying. Then the crowd quiets as Jesus says, “But first!” At this someone shouts, “I knew there had to be a catch. I knew it sounded to good to be true!” Then Jesus holds up His hand and tells them that they simply needed to forgive anyone that they have a grudge against so that God can forgive them too.

Why is forgiveness such a big deal? Well, because God says so, that’s why! I guess that should be reason enough. If we will not forgive others, how can we be sure that God forgives us? Or to put it another way, if we really believe that we are forgiven, how can we not forgive someone else? How could their sin against us, be greater than our sin against God. Or as God says, how can you say you love God and still hate your brother who was created in God’s image? The root of unforgiveness is hatred. Hatred gives us an ugly heart. An ugly heart is not capable of really believing! A person with an ugly heart is not capable of truly loving or truly receiving love. There is always hardness in the way.

You see if we can refuse to forgive one person, soon there will be another. We are on the road to being bitter against everything in life. If we will not forgive someone, we rob them of the power that our prayers could have for them. Worst of all, we reject the forgiveness of God. We are saying in effect that our desire not forgive someone who has done is wrong is greater than our desire to be forgiven. This in turn, stops our prayers from being answered.

It would only make sense then for us to be sure and ask God search our hearts and to and reveal to us any unforgiveness that we may be holding in our hearts. I believe this is one of the first things we should all do. Why not do it right now! Lord, show us if we are holding any grudges and refusing to forgive anyone. We forgive them and ask that you forgive us right now. We pray this in Jesus name.