The Daily Necessity of Forgiveness

We need forgiveness every day because we sin every day. Maybe you’re thinking, “I don’t know that I really sinned today.”

Well, can you think of a single impure thought you had? Did you lose your temper even once? The Bible tells us, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8 NKJV).

The passage goes on to say, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (verse 9 NKJV).

In what we often call the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us” (Luke 11:3–4 NKJV).

Jesus was saying that we not only should pray for our daily bread, but we should be praying for and extending forgiveness every day. God wants us to forgive others.

Maybe someone has bullied you on social media or insulted you. Maybe someone has hurt you, and you’re thinking, “This person did something so horrible that I can’t forgive them. Ever.”

I like what C. S. Lewis said about this: “Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive.” It’s a great concept until it’s time for us to forgive someone who we think doesn’t deserve it.

So, let’s just concede that point and say they don’t deserve it. But hold on. Do you deserve forgiveness?

You don’t, yet God gave it to you. So why would you not extend it to another person as well? The Bible says, “Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32 NLT).

God wants us to ask for forgiveness—and extend it to others as well.