Father, Forgive Me as I Forgive

“After this manner therefore pray ye… And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” 
Matthew 6:9-12 KJV 

There are prayers we learn by memory, and there are prayers we learn by living. 

The Lord’s Prayer is easy to recite, especially when we get to the part where we say, ‘Father, forgive me.’ It is harder to mean when the wound is fresh. Harder when the offence replays in the quiet and the heart wants justice more than mercy. 

Yet the Lord did not separate receiving forgiveness from extending it. In the same breath that we ask for pardon, we are invited to release. In the same prayer where we confess our need, we acknowledge the need of others. 

For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Matthew 6:14 KJV 

This poetic expression was written in the tension of that truth. In the space where forgiveness is not a feeling but a surrender. Where I realized that I could not manufacture mercy on my own strength. I could only return to the Father and place the hurt back into His hands. 

Father, Forgive Me As I Forgive is written from the quiet confession that sometimes I ask for grace while still holding onto what I should release. From the humbling awareness that the forgiveness I extend must flow from the forgiveness I have received. 

What follows is an offering of that prayer. 

Father, Forgive Me As I Forgive 

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do
And when they do, forgive me too, for I know not what I’d do.  

My heart holds bitterness, sometimes frustration in myself, and in others again
Father, forgive me when contention still breeds, when I keep anger hidden in my heart  

Father, forgive me when I claim no mercy is due,
When I forget the one I’ve received in You.  

Father, forgive me when I choose to fight alone,
and wage a war I was never meant to own.  

Father, forgive me when I say, “I’ve let it go,”
Yet deep in my spirit, resentment grows.  

Father, forgive me when I walk the extra mile,
only to avoid them, and not reconcile.  

Father, forgive me when You must step in
To teach my heart again what forgiveness truly means.  

Father, forgive me for taking so long
To right the heart I had been shaping wrong.  

Father, forgive me as I forgive those who trespass against me                                                                         
And lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil

For Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever.
Amen.