Day 12 | 40-Day Lenten Fast & Devotional

And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. Mark 11:25

Good morning, grace and peace be unto all of you, my father's children. It is in fact day 12 of our 40 day Lenten devotional.  We had this week been discussing the place of  forgiveness and redemption.  Just a thought and theme I wanted to press  for this week. Thank God laid on my heart to do so. So today our verse will come out of the gospel according to Mark, the 11th chapter, starting at that 25th verse. There you find these similar words: “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them so that your father in heaven  may forgive you your sins.”

This scripture finds itself at the tail end of Jesus' demonstration of what it meant to curse the fig tree. After clearing the temple courts, there is this place where the fig tree is representative of  an area that bears fruit, similar to that of our lives. And if our lives are in a place where they are no longer bearing fruit, where they are no longer producing something which is  in line with the will and purpose of God for our lives,  then Jesus really points out the uselessness of it.  So he begins to draw out all of the different areas and places  which are evidence of a lack of fruit bearing and things that you can do which prohibit fruit from being born, mainly at the end when he talks about when you stand and pray.

He says, listen, when you stand and pray, you can't stand and pray holding on to unforgiveness for somebody else because it's really hypocritical and oxymoronic if you think about it. When we open up with prayer, our prayer ought to be before we ask for a petition, before we do any of the, I need from God or what I want from God, we start off after Thanksgiving with an area  of repentance. So we're first asking God for forgiveness before we ask God for anything else. And it's amazing that we'll open up asking God for forgiveness while still harboring unforgiveness for somebody else. That's what makes this strange. Because somehow, some way we think that it's okay for us to hold on to stuff because we're human and God's supposed to just forgive us. But God is trying to explain that part of what this means to walk this walk, is to exemplify my heart in such a way that even my actions and my thoughts are aligned with how Christ would operate. You can't ask God for forgiveness while holding on to unforgiveness.

Listen to how the scripture is written. It says, when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, comma, so that. This is a cause and effect scripture. Meaning the effectiveness and the fervence of your prayer is predicated on your ability– it is to be honest enough to be able to let stuff go with your brother and your sister who you see. When you come boldly before the throne of grace, you cannot come shrouded in the arrogance of grudge  because that's what grudges are.  hey are embedded in the area of arrogance. They are embedded in our own self-righteousness. How could they do this to me? To me? I'm so hurt. As though your life, for a great portion of it, continues to be a contradiction to what you do to him.

And so, we never get pious enough to believe that we have the audacity, the wherewithal, or the mitigated gall to hold on to grudges no matter how offended we are. Because what we do is we cut off our communication and the essence of our prayer life with the Father. He says, so that your Father in heaven may forgive your sins. So keep in mind, it's forgiveness, peace.  It's not for the other person. It's for you and your relationship with Christ and your relationship with the Father.

Pray this bless you on today. Keep in mind,  let's go forth and be fruitful branches of Zion. Talk to y'all soon. Be blessed.