Matthew 6:12 | A Debt Paid

Matthew 6:12 (NKJV): “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”

Personally, when I pray Christ’s Model prayer and come to this part, I pray, “And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us,” rather than the way mentioned above from the New King James Version. For the blog today, however, I will use the words of the NKJV, as there are powerful truths we can reap from it. Both ways of praying Matthew 6:12 speak on the same concept, but I believe the NKJV version brings to light an important reality of our relationship with God.

1) We are in debt

The whole message of the Gospel, and the reason God came down to earth to save us, is because we are in way over our heads. As humans, we all have a digging problem. It seems as though, no matter how much we dig, we never find what we are looking for in the dirt. And, though we may find pebbles of gold in the soil sometimes, it doesn’t seem to satisfy. If we could just get one more nugget of some valuable ore, then we’d be content and probably stop digging. Probably. But, we don’t stop searching, and it seems the cycle of abuse we put ourselves and others through never seems to cease.

We dig because we are searching for something more. Sure, the gold and gemstones we may find while digging seems to produce some kind of happiness and satisfaction--for a while. But where does it go? Why does that satisfaction not stay? Why is there a gnawing within us that longs for something else--something better? It’s because there is something better, or more accurately, Someone better. And no, it’s not in another human that we find this answer; at least, not in any human like ourselves.