How Often Have I Failed to Forgive Someone Because I Failed to Ask God for the Strength to Forgive?

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Having a sermon on forgiveness can strike me for this reason - I've had a struggle with forgiving my enemies. I always find myself remembering the incident when the teacher got mad at me hurting my classmate over a mere insult. She told me that a court of law will never accept, "He started it!" as an excuse for me getting physical over something verbal. Then I remembered how much trouble I got with losing my temper with fools and how much my Christianity was put in question because of it. Shouldn't I be sympathetic over people who don't know better? Then I evaluated the reason why I'm having a hard time forgiving someone. It's because I fail to ask God to forgive that certain someone who had wronged me.

Why do you think the Lord's prayer asks for forgiveness for my sins as I forgive others who sin against me? Why did Jesus cry out, "Father forgive them for they don't know what they do?" Why did Stephen ask God to forgive his executors? It's because forgiving someone should always start with asking God to forgive that person. Jesus' model on the cross as the Son of God asking His heavenly Father to forgive His executors is meant to show another thing - you can't truly forgive unless you first ask God to forgive that person!

I've had many enemies in my teenage years. I got saved and I wondered why was I still seeking to harm my enemies? I was told to stop resting on my own capability. Why should I trust my lying, hateful self? I admit that I do have my problems with lying and anger - it's only because of sin. While I can't excuse myself that I'm a sinner that I sin but I can't just be saved without asking for grace and mercy to avoid those sins. I can't avoid sin because I'm a sinner. It's God that gives grace against sin (Titus 2:11-14). Apart from that, I'm just nothing!

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