Tuesday, March 24th | Daily Devotion
- 2 days ago
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“If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." –Matthew 6:14–15
TRANSCRIPTION:
Good morning. Grace and peace be unto all of you, my Father’s children on this incredible Tuesday. I pray this finds you both blessed and highly favored.
We continue this week in the theme of forgiveness as we move toward the closing portion of our Lenten season. Today we go to the Gospel of Matthew, the sixth chapter, beginning at the 14th verse.
These two verses are direct and, if we sit with them honestly, a little uncomfortable. Because what Jesus is laying out here is that forgiveness is not simply a generous gesture we extend to others out of the goodness of our hearts. It is, at its core, transactional — and not in the way we might first assume.
We tend to think of forgiveness as something we are giving away. An act of grace that originates with us and flows outward toward the person who wronged us. But what this passage reveals is something far more humbling. Our ability — and our willingness — to forgive actually speaks to our own awareness of how much we ourselves are in need of it. Every day, in every space we move through, there is some moment where we have fallen short, where we have grieved the heart of God, where we have transgressed in ways large or small. We are always, in some sense, in a posture of need before the Father.
And if that is true — if we are continuously returning to God in need of His forgiveness — then the question Jesus is really asking is this: How can you request from the Father a continuous state of forgiveness and yet find yourself unwilling to extend that same grace to your brother or your sister?
That is the tension Matthew 6 is holding up for us. This chapter covers giving to the needy, fasting, where we store our treasure — and woven through all of it is this question of how we are to operate with one another. Even what we call the Lord’s Prayer — which is more accurately a model prayer, since the Lord Himself has no need of forgiveness — carries this same thread. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. The two are linked. Our posture toward others and God’s posture toward us are not separate conversations.
So as you continue through this week, I want to encourage a spirit of transparency within yourself. Acknowledge the places where you have fallen short. Stay in a posture of grace — because the grace you receive from the Father is the very grace you are called to pass on. That is what forgiveness is really about. Not superiority. Not scorekeeping. But an honest reckoning with our own need, and a willingness to let that need make us more gracious toward others.
I pray this blesses you, motivates you, and does something transformative in you today. Have an incredible Tuesday.