Jeremiah 23:30-32

30Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.

31Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith.

32Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD.

As we Forgive

The Golden Gate of Prayer: Chapter 13 - As we Forgive By J.R. Miller A writer says of another, "his heart was as great as the world--but there was no room in it to hold the memory of a wrong." This is the true ideal for every Christian heart. We have it in the prayer which we are taught to offer for forgiveness. While we ask God to forgive us--we declare to him that we have forgiven those who are indebted to us; those who have trespassed against us. We say to God--that there is no bitterness, no spirit of unforgiveness, in our heart.   The language is very strong. In Matthew, according to the revised Version, the petition read, "And forgive us our debts--as we also have forgiven our debtors." In Luke it is "Forgive us our sins--for we also forgive everyone who sins against us." We cannot use the first part of the petition--asking our Father to forgive us; and not follow with the other in which we declare that we will show to others--the same forgiveness which we ask for ourselves. The great importance of this duty of forgiving appears when we remember how repeatedly it is brought before us. When our Lord had gone through the form of prayer, he called the particular attention of his disciples to this petition, in the words, "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." On another occasion, when speaking of prayer and the power we may exercise through prayer, "And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him--so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins." Whenever we appear before God, and before we begin to speak to him, we should look into our own heart, and if we find there any bitterness, any feeling of unforgiveness, we should seek instantly to put it away. Indeed we must put it away before we can proceed with our prayer. In one of our Lord's parables we have the same lesson taught again in most emphatic way. Our debt to God is represented by ten thousand talents, a vast sum; while our neighbor's debt to us is only a hundred pence--less than one millionth part of the ten thousand talents, a proportion so small as to be almost inappreciable. We fret and chafe over the wrongs and injuries done to us by others--as if they were really enormous. This view of the greatness of our sins against God--in comparison with the smallness of the evil our neighbor has done to us, should make us ashamed of our bitterness to others! God forgives our vast debt, our ten thousand talents, freely and fully. The behavior of the servant who had been forgiven by his Lord, toward his fellow servant whose debt to him was so small in comparison, is too often repeated by those who claim to have received God's forgiveness and then go out to exact the last farthing from others. The closing words of the parable we should never forget. The old debt to God once remitted, comes back with all its crushing weight: "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you--unless you forgive your brother from your heart." A lesson which is taught so plainly by our Lord and emphasized by so many repetitions, must be a most important one. The duty of forgiving others is not merely one of the refinements of Christian culture, something which adds to the beauty of a Christian character, though not essential to it; rather it is a vital element in every true Christian life. Unless we have forgiven those who have wronged us--we cannot ask God to forgive us. Luther uses strong language: "When you say, 'I will not forgive,' and stand before God with your prayer, and mumble with your mouth, 'Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,' what is that but saying: 'I do not forgive him--and so do not forgive me. You have told me to forgive, and rather than obey--I will renounce you, and your heaven, and all, and be the devil's for evermore!'"