Faith is central to my life, but it’s also in the small things–how we speak, how we pray, and especially how we respond when we’ve been wronged. This week at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Bangor, we continued our series through the Lord’s Prayer, focusing on a challenging but essential line:

“Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.”
– Luke 11:4 (NIV)

Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness is never abstract. It’s practical, relational, and deeply personal. Forgiveness is not just something we receive; it’s something we extend.

🕊️ Forgive Everyone for Everything

Forgiveness is at the heart of the gospel. When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He included this uncomfortable but necessary truth: if we want to live under God’s forgiveness, we must be people who forgive.

📖 A Parable That Cuts Deep

In Matthew 18, Peter asks how many times he must forgive–seven times? Jesus replies:

“I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” (v. 22)

Then He tells the parable of the unmerciful servant, who was forgiven a massive debt but refused to forgive someone who owed him a small amount. The warning is clear: if we withhold forgiveness, we show we’ve never truly understood the mercy we’ve received.

“Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?”
– Matthew 18:33

🤝 Forbearance: Grace in Real Time

“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”
– Colossians 3:13 (NIV)

We often talk about forgiveness, but we rarely talk about forbearance–the patient, gracious endurance of others’ faults and failures. Forbearance is forgiveness in progress. It’s love that chooses to wait. It’s mercy that stretches.

🪨 It means:

  • Letting go of the right to retaliate
  • Choosing peace over bitterness
  • Loving when the wounds are still healing

🧍‍♀️ Real-Life Stories of Radical Forgiveness

🔹 Gavves’ Wife (2012)

After her husband was murdered on Christmas Eve, she said:

“Don’t give yourself permission to pine in the room of unforgiveness.”

Through tears, she chose to forgive–not because it was easy, but because she had received the grace of Jesus.

🔹 Richard Wurmbrand

Tortured under communism, he forgave the man who beat him.

“I have forgiven you with all my heart… If I can forgive you, so can Jesus.”

These stories show us what forgiveness and forbearance look like in action–not abstract ideals, but real, costly love.

❤️ Forgive from the Heart

Jesus doesn’t want shallow words. He wants forgiveness “from the heart” (Matthew 18:35). Not surface-level. Not just a performance. But real, Spirit-enabled release.

This means:

  • We stop replaying the offence
  • We stop wishing harm on the person
  • We entrust justice to God

Forgiveness is not pretending it didn’t happen.
Forgiveness is choosing not to carry the poison of bitterness any longer.

✨ The Freedom of Letting Go

Unforgiveness is a heavy burden. Forgiveness is a release. It’s the freedom to live with joy again. It’s the restoration of intimacy with God.

“If you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
– Matthew 6:15 (NIV)

That’s not a threat–it’s a reality. Forgiveness is the evidence of a changed heart.

📿 A Prayer of Forbearance

Lord,
You have forgiven me more than I can ever repay.
Teach me to forgive.
Teach me to forbear.
When the pain resurfaces, remind me of Your mercy.
Help me release resentment, and let love win.
Amen.

🧠 Reflection Questions

  1. Who do I need to forgive today–even if they haven’t asked?
  2. Where might God be calling me to show forbearance rather than frustration?
  3. Am I holding on to a wound that is keeping me from intimacy with God?
  4. What does forgiveness “from the heart” look like in my current relationships?
  5. Have I truly grasped the depth of God’s mercy toward me?

📚 Scripture References

  • Luke 11:4
  • Matthew 6:9–15
  • Matthew 18:21–35
  • Colossians 3:13
  • 1 John 1:9
  • Psalm 103:8–12

Forgiveness is not easy. Forbearance is not natural. But both are possible by the grace of God. If we’ve been forgiven much–and we have–then we are called to live lives marked by mercy. Lives that forgive. Lives that forbear.

“Forgive everyone for everything.”
Not because they deserve it.
Because Jesus did it first.