Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 89

March 30;      Mark 11:25;       39/260(IV);        ‘Pray and Forgive’

Mark 11:25 And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.

The Lord Jesus just taught powerful principles on the prayer of faith.  Speak against thecircumstances, believing by faith that the circumstances will be removed.  Then pray believing that you have the answer when you pray.  Now Jesus tells us that there are things that can hinder our prayers.  Unwillingness to forgive others, because of something that they have done to you is a huge hindrance to your prayers.  The Lord wants us to forgive others because we have been forgiven of everything by Him.  He also wants us to forgive because unforgiveness is detrimental to your emotional and physical well being.  Prayer is incredibly powerful.  The Lord and the devil both know this.  The devil will use anything he can to minimize the effectiveness of your prayers.  Unforgiveness is his primary method of causing our prayers to go unanswered.  In Matthew 18, a servant was brought to the king.  The servant owed the king a huge amount of money and had no means of repaying the king.  The servant asked the king for mercy and the king graciously forgave him.  Then the forgiven servant went out, found someone who owed him a small amount and would not forgive the man of his debt despite his pleas..  The forgiven servant had the servant who owed him the money thrown in jail.  Word got back to the king about the forgiven servant who would not forgive.  The king threw him into prison because of his cruelty to a fellow servant.  The Lord is the King, if we do not forgive, we act contrary to God’s mercy, hurting our prayers.