Forgiveness Requires Faith

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

The word 'and' in this verse is related to
what has gone on before.
It connects to the powerful things Jesus said
about mountain-moving faith and prayer
that gets results.
But what does forgiveness have to do with
faith?

Remember when Jesus talked about faith as
a mustard seed, in Luke ?
The disciples had just asked Him to increase
their faith.
The sudden desire for more faith was because
of what Jesus had just said to them about
forgiveness.

"Take heed to yourselves. If your brother
sins against you, rebuke him; and if he
repents, forgive him. And if he sins against
you seven times in a day and seven times
in a day returns to you, saying, 'I repent,"
you shall forgive him.."
Luke 17:3-4

Forgiveness is an act of faith.
The disciples knew immediately that this
kind of forgiveness would require a great
need of faith that they hadn't experienced
or learned yet.

When people are offended, they are slowed
down or even stopped from moving forward.

The Greek word for 'offense' refers to a snare
or stumblingblock.
When we are caught in a snare or trip over a
stumblingblock we have immediately stopped
moving.
We are no longer making progress.
We need to decide how long we are willing to
stay in that hindered state.
The choice is ours.

The answer is to forgive and that takes faith,
faith to believe that God is going to take care
of the situation and heal whatever we have
lost by the offense.

Forgiveness allows us to get up, get out and
move forward again.
That snare is no longer a snare, and the
stumblingblock is no longer a stumbling-
block.
They have been removed, like mountains.