"IF"

A Blast From The Word
By Sandra Rhynes

“IF”

Matthew 6:14-15 14 "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

We have been memorizing the Lords Prayer in my third and fourth grade Sunday school class. The children are doing great! I want you to look at the verses right below the Lord’s Prayer. These are the verses we don’t care for. They make us flinch. They make us holler---ouch!!!! The word IF implies we have to DO something. We are responsible for the outcome. Do these verses mean what I think they do? IF we don’t forgive others, THEN Jesus doesn’t forgive us? AHHHHHH, but the other side of that coin is, IF we do forgive, we don’t have anything to worry about. Isn’t that GREAT!

Heavenly Father, thank You so much for Your loving kindness. Thank You for Your forgiveness even when I don’t deserve it. Help me to forgive my friends, family, church family, co-workers and any other ones that You have died for. Help me to act the way You would want me to in all circumstances. When I get before You on judgment day I want to hear “well done thou good and faithful servant, enter in.” I love you, Lord. I pray all of these things in Your precious name. Amen