The Most Powerful Prayer

There is probably no prayer as powerful as the prayer for our enemies. But it is also the most difficult prayer since it is most contrary to our impulses.

       ~ Henri Nouwen

That Nasty F-Word: Forgive

The Christian F-Word by Jerry Jeter (Not what you think)

There is no relationship between the "F" word the world uses and the "F" word a Christian uses. Jesus would not have used vulgar language. Followers of Christ should not use vulgar language. We're called to take up our cross and follow Jesus daily. We are to live the way Jesus lived.

Jesus spoke the "F" word I'm thinking of. Christians should like the word. Yet, there are some who choose to avoid it. If a Christian avoids this "F" word, they are not speaking the language Jesus told us to speak. So, why do some avoid it? Because it is hard to FORGIVE.

That's it. Forgive. Forgiveness. Forgave. That's what I'm talking about. Jesus forgave us. He spoke the word many times, but one of the more magnificent ways He used this word was when He was being nailed to the cross. He said, "Father, FORGIVE them for they know not what they do." We don't like to forgive people who hurt us. Jesus forgave the people who nailed Him to the cross while they were in the act of hurting Him. He didn't even wait for them to ask for forgiveness.

Are you waiting for somebody to ask you to forgive them? It could happen. However, it might not happen. They might not know they hurt you. They might be justifying their actions. Or, it's possible they truly thought whatever they did to hurt you was "for your own good." Who knows? You don't have to wait for somebody to ask you to forgive them. You can forgive before being asked.

I'm glad Jesus forgave me. His nails should have been mine. He took the nails for me, for my sin... and for yours. Even though we are the cause of His pain, Jesus forgives us.

Holding a grudge doesn't help anybody. It hurts the person who holds it far more than it hurts the person the grudge is being held against. Forgiveness is a new beginning for the one who was wronged.

I FORGIVE you might be hard to say, but it will bring peace to the life of the one who speaks it.

Unforgiveness is Like Cancer

A touching story about the power of forgiveness at Love thy neighbor @ GetReligion. It tells of a woman named Mary who learned to forgive the man who shot her son.  The best and most significant quote to me is the following statement:

“Unforgiveness is like cancer,” Mary says. “It will eat you from the inside out. It’s not about that other person, me forgiving him does not diminish what he’s done. Yes, he murdered my son - but the forgiveness is for me. It’s for me.”

 Read the whole story at the link above.
  

A Prayer for Enemies

The prayer below was composed during World War II in the Dachau prison camp by Nikolai Velimirovic, a Serbian Orthodox bishop who had been betrayed by friends and arrested for his anti-Nazi activities in Yougoslavia.

"Bless my enemies, O Lord.  Even I bless them and do not curse them. Enemies have driven me into your embrace more than friends have.  Friends have bound me to earth; enemies have loosed me from earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world.

Enemies have made me a stranger in worldly realms and an extraneous inhabitant of the world.

Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an unhunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath your tabernacle, where neither friends not enemies can slay my soul.

Bless my enemies, O Lord.  Even I bless and do not curse them...

(Quoted in Unconditional?: The Call of Jesus to Radical Forgiveness bu Brian Zahnd, page 42)

Let me repeat: This was written in Dachau concentration camp!  This is only part of the prayer; there are longer quotes in the book referenced above (which I will be talking about more in future posts). This is a man who understood the meaning of the words in Lord's Prayer.- "forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors."  (Matthew 6:12 ESV)

Can any of us claim to have more of an excuse for not forgiving than this man?