This week's prayer challenge comes from chapter 16 of "Prayer" by Richard Foster. As we prepare for Bjorn's message on forgiveness this Sunday, here are some thoughts to prime your heart and mind around Matthew 6:12, 14-15:

"As long as the only cry heard among us is for vengeance, there can be no reconciliation. If our hearts are so narrow as to see only how others have hurt and offended us, we cannot see how we have offended God and so find no need to seek forgiveness. If we are always calculating in our hearts how much this one or that one has violated our rights, by the very nature of things we will not be able to pray this prayer [Matthew 6:12].

"In the affairs of human beings there is a vicious cycle of retaliation: you gore my ox and I'll gore your ox, you hurt me and I'll hurt you in return. Now the giving of forgiveness is so essential because it breaks this law of retribution. We are offended and, instead of offending in return, we forgive. (Be assured that we are able to do this only because of the supreme act of forgiveness at Golgotha, which once and for all broke the back of the cycle of retaliation.) When we do, when we forgive, it unleashes a flood of forgiving graces from heaven and among human beings."

From Prayer by Richard Foster

Be blessed this week,
Pastor Tracy

This Sunday...

School of Prayer: Teach Us Forgiveness

"And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins."

This week, we jump back into the School of Prayer with Jesus as He teaches us how to pray in Matthew 6.

You can follow along with the message on YouVersion Events. Here's the link.