No Need to Worry.... He's Got it in the Bag!

For Don't you just love the Lord's Prayer, or as I have more recently come to know it the Our Father?

For over 11 years now I have been regularly praying this prayer, though I confess mainly in common worship rather than private prayer.

But there has always been one line I would rather were not there!

It's all this forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us business, I would really rather do without.

Forgive us our sins is a great line, I am really in favour of that in fact I can't fault it!

It's this bit about only getting forgiven as I forgive others that I am not so keen on. You see if that's the case then I am up the creek with out a paddle.

It's not that I am a particularly vengeful person, but I am a person and as such sometimes it can be a struggle to forgive.

Unforgiveness can sneak up on me and take me by surprise and I can find myself harbouring thoughts of unforgiveness for things I thought had forgiven people for long ago.

So I started to insert a silent line into my praying of this wonderful prayer, between forgive us our sins and as we forgive those who sin against us, I would ask Father God to help me to forgive as he forgives.

This dealt with the issue for me, for a long time, as I usually only prayed these lines maybe once or twice a week.

Then I became a Catholic and this kind of put the cat among the pigeons, I found that I was praying this prayer much more frequently and more so in private particular while praying the Rosary.

So there I was this morning praying away, saying my Rosary and my Father gave me a present.

Into my head popped a verse from the Bible, Ephesians 3:20

You see I understand that it is only reasonable that I should only ask to be forgiven as I forgive others (and it's not that I don't want to forgive others, and I do try my best, but I am still a work in progress) and I am sure my Father is pleased that I ask him for help to be able to forgive as he does.

There He was this morning ... Maker of Heaven and Earth, of all that is seen and unseen and He wanted to do something for one of his little ones so He turned to me an smiled and said....

He by his mighty power within us is able to do far more than we could ask or even dream of, infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts or hopes.

So, all I have to do is pray and trust in Him because He's got it all in the bag!