Matthew 6:12

Do you have a mortgage? Student Loan? Car loan? Do you owe a friend $20 you still haven't paid back? Any credit card debt? We're all debtors somewhere. Don't you want them just to go away? Wouldn't it be great if someone told you it was paid in full?

"We will not forgive!" These bold words can bluster from both sides of global conflicts and dinner tables. The words become weapons that shape our hearts, relationships and history.

Jesus taught us to pray, "...forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors." That's a completely different way of praying and living in this world, isn't it? Somehow, in these simple words, Jesus brings our great need for our debts to wiped clean and our account with others to be reconciled together. What are we do with this? As we rise from Easter Sunday and walk out the hope of the empty tomb, we return this Sunday to the Lord's prayer and the question of what we do with the debts we owe and are owed. 

Phil Wagler