You got to forgive… so often so true as holding on to a grievance is not smart, and as is said bitterness is to drink of the poison one wants someone else to be drinking. But been thinking a bit lately – always dangerous I know!
I have been looking at the three big words that are used to describe the catch-all word ‘sin’ and the one I have focused on is ‘trespass’. Crossing boundaries, overstepping a line – that kind of meaning. Immediately after Matthew’s account of the disciples’ prayer he records Jesus as saying,
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (Matt.6;14,15).
How do we trespass? There are the obvious ways – crossing a boundary that we should not… the ‘original’ sin is described by Paul in Rom. 8 as a trespass (paraptoma). Our ancestors crossed a boundary, ‘do not eat from the one forbidden tree’ – a critique of global history in that prohibition. We cross boundaries every time we seek to control / manipulate someone else, and there are many warnings in Scripture about moving boundary markers.
And the non-obvious ways, when we are being ever so good and our ‘kindness’ and ‘love’, so wanting the best for someone (cos we really know what is the best for them) we simply go too far. Paul said live at peace (and being a Jew he is thinking ‘shalom’) with all as far as is possible – sometimes the other party draws a line, with a ‘so far but no further’. To go beyond the line they draw – maybe that is a trespass?
I came back the other day to say to Gayle that I am challenged about a situation I am praying into, in that maybe I should stop praying about it and simply trust God that s/he is right in there and does not need any prayers that simply help settle any anxieties I have. Maybe to be prayerful I need to pray less about it. So easy to cross boundaries without realising it.
Forgive us our trespasses. Forgiveness. I like one of the uses of the word ‘forgive’. It was used in ancient Greek of the release of a boat to its journey. How about applying that to situations. Untie the situation / person and release them (thank God that s/he travels with them – after all s/he left the ‘garden’ with our ancestors). We can hold on too tight, not always to a wrong done to us, but to the ‘I am so important and vital and know what is best’ scenario.
Living a godly life seems not to be so much about being good as being made well.
Good to take stock and review where to draw a line so to speak ..
Extending grace and kindness for giving to oneself when it is to perhaps simply let go and entrust to the one who wants us well..
All shall be well in a manner of all being well
Great Martin. Really helpful advice and wisdom as ever. Hanging on too tight to what we think is best for someone/a situation can be so counterproductive and damaging?. What did you mean though in the last sentence? Do you mean being healthy by being ‘made well’ or something else? Thank you
Hey Joanna
By ‘made well’ I am thinking more of inner ‘wellness’ as being a central part of ‘salvation’ (a kind of orthodox approach?) rather than simply ‘declared righteous’ (protestant)… If I am increasingly made well so that effort, comparison, crossing boundaries etc. become less motivations I will probably become more God-like in my behaviour.
As always ‘perspectives’, musings and certainly not definitive.
I think it is a very human thing to work out our anxieties, and need to control people and situations, in our prayers. And yes we need to get beyond that.
Years ago the evangelical community I was associated with began a new type of prayer. During prayer to change people or situations God was repeatedly urged to sovereignly do something. I could not figure out what that meant. First of all, they were trying to control God by telling God what needed to happen. Secondly, wasn’t God already sovereign, at least in their theology? If so, did they think God was slacking off if nothing had happened? Or that God needed to be pushed to supercharge it up or something. It left me totally confused. But in the end it was about trespassing boundaries with as much power as those doing the praying hoped to muster. Amazing.