Rising Church

As Jesus teaches us to rethink prayer, the second category of petition Jesus teaches us to pray and ask our heavenly Father for is "forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors". The word forgive here is the Greek word "aphiemi", which literally means "to send away from, to let go, to release, to discharge". Our prayer is not that God would send us away from him, but that God would send our debts, our trespasses, our sins, our offenses away from us! The most dangerous part of this prayer is the "as", which just as easily could be translated "as, like, according to, as long as". Is that something we really want to pray, that our Father would send our sins away from us as long as we have sent the sins others have committed against us away from them? The reality is in this fallen world we live in, others will sin against us. It's not a matter of if, but when. Everybody at some point will sin against us, disappoint us, hurt us. Jesus teaches us that we need to forgive others. Why? Ultimatel