| The Golden Gate of Prayer |
Chapter 12 |
Page 7 |
There is another little word here which must not be overlooked: “Forgive us.” Throughout all this prayer we have been taught not the speak to God for ourself alone. We approach the gates of prayer, crying, not, “My Father,” but “Our Father.” Self must be effaced and selfishness must die as we fall on our knees. In asking for bread, we are taught to think of others’ needs as well as our own. So here, when we cry for forgiveness, we must include others.
There is a sense in which we must bring our own sins, alone, to God. They are our own and no one but ourself can get them forgiven. We must confess our own sins and repent of our own sins. The Pharisee in the parable was free in confessing the publican’s sins, but said not a word about his own. The publican’s confession was the true one. He troubled himself only with his own personal unworthiness. “God be merciful to me a sinner.”
Yet, while we must pray for the forgiveness of our own personal sins, our prayer is not complete if we do not reach out and ask that others too may be forgiven. We are to love our neighbor as ourself. We are therefore to be concerned about our neighbor’s sins as much as we are about our own. But are we? We may find it easy to see our neighbor’s faults and to blame him for his follies or shortcomings; but is that really being grieved for his sins? Do we not sometimes almost rejoice at learning that a neighbor has slipped or fallen? Yet if we have the mind that was in Christ Jesus we will feel toward the sins of others as he did, and he wept over Jerusalem because the people would not repent.
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