A prayer for forgiving, what we can't forget, by Alicia Headley, read by Liam Martin.

Then Peter came to him and said, Lord, how often shall my brothers sin against me and

I forgive him up to seven times? Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times,

but up to seventy times seven, Matthew 1822. We've all had someone in our life who's heard us.

It could be someone who heard us as a child and the pain still follows us today,

or perhaps it's someone we face daily, whether it's our spouse or someone with whom we work.

Sometimes these wounds are easy to heal, but what if the offense is so painful? You can't forget it.

We're taught in Ephesians 432, the basis for believers forgiving others. It's the fact that we

ourselves have been graciously forgiven by God. God never says we are to forget an offense,

but simply forgive it. For most of us forgiving what we can't forget isn't so simple.

In today's scripture, Peter felt the same way. Jesus responds to Peter's question with an

inexact number, probably not what Peter was looking for. Jesus was not saying we keep a tally of

the times we forgive and then stop after seventy times, seven times. Jesus was implying a number

that can't be counted, a continual forgiveness. What this means is that it'll take daily practice,

daily obedience, daily forgiveness, and it's ongoing, never ending.

So how do we walk in continual forgiveness? We do this by prayer. Matthew 544 tells us

where to pray and bless our enemies and those who have heard us. And day after day,

prayer after prayer, the Lord will begin to chip away the pain and soften our hearts.

We may never forget the offense, but we can certainly replace that pain with a love and

perspective that God plants on our heart through our prayers. We don't always forget the hurt,

but we can allow God to change our heart as we forgive the hurt. Let us become more like Jesus day

by day and choose to forgive just as He forgave us. Let's pray.

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