Prayer Power

Forgiveness ... Again
By Petey Prater

God and I argued all weekend.

On Friday the Lord used my friend, Carol, to convince me I hadn’t really forgiven a man who’d hurt someone I love. Saturday, a Bible study lesson hit me over the head with the same truth. Finally, Pastor’s sermon polished me off when it got me square between the eyes.

Sunday afternoon I stomped out of the house, depressed and mad. I ended up walking the lake
path debating with God why I shouldn’t have to forgive. I know better than to argue with God, I never win.

For starters, God reminded me of all the errors I’ve committed as a Christian and the damage I’ve done to other lives. “Write them all down,” he said. “See how many times I’ve forgiven you.” My list was embarrassingly long.

“Okay God, I get it. Help me give you this problem…again. Give me the ability to forgive and I’ll do it. I receive your grace to love and release him.”

As I trudged around the lake, God walked me through the four steps of last weeks lesson. Remember them? Give the problem to God. Receive the ability to forgive. Leave the results with God. Pray for your enemy. I don’t know what other walkers thought of the mumbling woman they passed, I’m just glad the Holy Spirit interprets and accepts my mumble grumbles. Soon my anger evaporated and I headed home.

Forgiveness seems to be an exercise we have to practice over and over. I ought to have a huge forgiveness muscle by now, but more often than I would like to admit it is flabby and under exercised. I know that Colossians 3:13 states we are to “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” I even know it feels better to forgive than to carry a load of anger. Still, I admit that at times I struggle to forgive.

By Monday, the Lord began giving me insights about how to pray for my enemy. Based on God’s promises in Job 22:27-30, I could pray and believe for spiritual growth and release for him. These verses in Job are powerful promises for intercessors. Listen to what God will do when Christians pray with a pure heart:

“You will pray to him, (the Lord) and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows. What you decide on will be done, and light will shine on your ways. When men are brought low and you say, ‘Lift them up!’ then he will save the downcast. He will deliver even one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”

Wow! That’s a powerful verse. If I will keep my heart and hands clean, forgiving others when I’m wounded, God will use me to produce spiritual wholeness in the very one causing my hurt. Jesus will set the guilty free through my prayers.

Self often screams, “Get him, God! Judge him!” Instead, God wants me to get him by lifting him up in prayer, restoring my brother to Christ. Now that I think about it lifting him up would probably be the perfect exercise to tighten my flabby forgiveness muscle.

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Petey Prater is a Beaverton, OR writer and speaker who can be reached at peteyprater@yahoo.com. She has contributed to two books:

Prayers for Troubled Times compiled by Jeannie St John Taylor, AMG Publishers and
101 Stories of Answered Prayer by Jeannie St John Taylor and Petey Prater, AMG Pub.