Pray With Forgiveness!

Did you know that it is possible to pray the Model Prayer and be asking the Lord to refrain from forgiving you of your sins? Notice Matthew 6:12, And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. In other words, forgive me in the same manner in which I forgive others. It is easy to see that if you are unwilling to forgive those who have wronged you and you repeat this prayer, then you are asking the Lord not to forgive you. You may take out the as in verse 12 and insert an equal sign (=) in its place. So you are actually praying forgive me equal to the way I forgive others. The same door you open to give out forgiveness is the one through which the Lord will come to deliver your own forgiveness, so if you don't open it, He will refrain from forgiving you. That prayer can be scary. Do you harbor ill feelings toward anyone in your heart? The book of Hebrews calls this a root of bitterness. I once read that anger and bitterness held toward someone else is like an acid, it is worse on the container than the one on which it is poured. I know that, in my life, I have learned that I can only find room in my life for one enemy and that is Satan himself.
You may want to suggest that perhaps no one has ever hurt me like they have harmed you. And if I had experienced what you had been through, then I would not be able to handle it even as well as you have. He was dying on the cross for our sins and said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Surely you and I have faced nothing that can even be compared with the torture of crucifixion, the bearing of our sins, and yet He was able to forgive us.
Every word in the Bible is inerrant and inspired and is there by the Spirit's design. Of all the elements in the Model Prayer, only this one is repeated in the following verses after the prayer. When the Lord sees fit to repeat something, I think it means we need to give it some special attention.
Pray with forgiveness!