Day Six: I bear no ill will

“In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part”.

Matthew 6: 14-15 (The Message)

I was taught, many years ago to pinpoint, to base my personal prayers - and the prayer headings for a church service - on ACTS: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. While the established church’s set services have many prayers, some difficult to slot into an ACTS category, our Congregational services provide the ideal opportunity to strand our prayers out and make them specific.

Can we be forgiven if we do not confess and ask for forgiveness? In our generation, the most famous example of unexpected forgiveness came on November 8th 1987 after a Remembrance Day service in Enniskillen. A bomb, planted by the Provisional IRA, exploded and killed eleven people. Just hours later Gordon Wilson, having been pulled from the rubble, announced: “I bear no ill will. I bear no grudge” and he begged that no reprisals should take place. He publicly forgave the bombers, who had just killed his daughter Marie. It was ten years before a formal apology was issued for the bombing. A couple of years ago, Joan Wilson, Gordon’s wife said she hoped the bombers had repented.

Let us pray:

God, my Heavenly Father, I find it difficult to understand the psychology of forgiveness. Gordon Wilson forgave the people who had just killed his daughter, yet others bear grudges for years over incredibly trivial incidents. Why, when I am made in your image, do I find it so difficult to forgive others, even when Scripture warns that if my forgiveness is conditional, so will yours be?

Jesus, my Saviour, when you walked this earth you were slighted and threatened, you were ignored, scourged and beaten, you suffered the indignity of a criminal’s death, yet from the cross you said, “Forgive them, Father! They don't know what they are doing.” Why do I find it so hard to forgive? Why can’t I follow your example?

Holy Spirit, indwelling voice of gentleness and peace, remind me that I cannot truly call myself Christian until and unless I practise the same forgiveness that you demonstrated. Remind me that when I ask forgiveness for my sins, I must first forgive those who have done me wrong.

Loving and merciful trinitarian God, I ask forgiveness for my wrong thoughts, my careless words and my sinful deeds. I forgive those who have hurt me, whether intentionally or not. I forgive those who have gossiped about me, those who have caused me sleepless nights and those whose attitudes are arrogant. Please forgive me for all these things too. Amen.

“Happy are those whose sins are forgiven, whose wrongs are pardoned. Happy is the one whom the Lord does not accuse of doing wrong and who is free from all deceit”.

Psalm 32: 1-2 (GNT)

Elaine Kinchin