Please Forgive Me Lord
Let me teach you a phrase that I think will help lead you to serenity and peace. And it's simply the phrase: Please forgive me.
Maybe it's one that you're familiar with. In the story we read yesterday in Matthew 18, the servant falls on his knees before his master and says, "Be patient with me, I will pay back everything." Now, he didn't say it in so many words, but essentially he was saying: Please forgive me. Please have mercy on me.
In fact, Martin Luther, the great reformer of the Church, was known to say, "We are all beggars before God," and he'd recognised that each one of us is in God's debt. Each one of us has fallen short, and none of us have anything to offer to try and pay God back.
Recognising Our Real Debt
I think it's no coincidence that Jesus uses such a large figure in this parable. The man owed 10,000 bags of gold to the master. Now scholars believe that Galilee's total revenue was 300 talents. This man owed 10,000. When He said that, the listeners must have been absolutely shocked at how He emphasised our immense debt to God.
When we realise this ourselves - how much we owe God - we come to Him with this phrase: Please forgive me. Please forgive me.
The Enemy's Strategy vs God's Mercy
I looked up the word forgive on Google Dictionary. One definition is "to no longer feel angry about or wish to punish."
The enemy wants to block your peace, your serenity. He wants you to wallow in guilt. He wants guilt to eat you up. He wants you to beat yourself up. He wants you to belittle yourself.
And so he whispers all sorts of hateful and hurtful things to you to keep you from peace. But God wants to set you free from guilt. He wants you to come and say: Please forgive me, so that He can pour out His forgiveness and set you free.
A Promise You Can Hold Onto
Here's a verse for you to memorise, 1 John 1:8-9, which says: "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins. And to know that, friends - you can be forgiven. Come to God, say Please forgive me, and He is faithful and just and will relieve your guilt if you give it to Him.
