Daily Devotional Bible Verse
And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. (Mark 11:25 ESV)
In prayer, many of us tend to simply rattle off a list of things we have done wrong for the day or week, and ask God to forgive us for them. This usually constitutes all the forgiveness we believe is needed during our prayer time. This isn’t necessarily wrong, but as this verse points out, there is something we should be doing before we ask God to forgive us of our multitude of sins. We are told to first forgive those we have something against. This is similar to Matthew 5:23-24. There is something that causes sharp division in the church when there is unforgiveness and bitterness. Feelings are hurt, friendships are severed, or even churches split because of unforgiven wrongs. It might start out small and seem to be nothing, but soon it grows into wrath, malice, bitterness, anger, and slander toward those whom we haven’t forgiven (Ephesians 4:31). Make it a part of your daily prayers to think of any person that might have sinned against you making you angry, sad or hurt and forgive them. For most of us, this happens multiple times throughout the day and we neglect to first forgive them in prayer before we ask to be forgiven ourselves.
Who has recently or in the past wronged you that you need to forgive?
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