A prayer to forgive our father
By Lynette Kittle
Bible Reading:
“Father, don’t anger your children; instead, I will raise them to the training and guidance of the Lord” – Ephesians 6:4
Read or listen to the following:
What if your father did not obey God’s word, angered you, and decided to remove him from your life? Is that okay to God? Does he care if you choose to never forgive your father and write him down from your life? When looking for films to watch, there seems to be a wealth of relationships based on the theme of father’s daughter, father-son. The focus is often on overcoming alienation and continued conflict between fathers and adult children.
Honestly, many fathers don’t make fathers very often, such as raising their own fathers themselves, or having fathers around them but not having the know-how and skills of their fathers, or having no fathers with serious personal problems such as addiction or other weaknesses. It is heartbreaking for a child to grow up without a father there and teach them about life. Similarly, it is difficult for a child to grow up with a father who has been disappointed by his actions and lack of presence in life and has disappointed the child in a great way.
God’s Call to Forgive Our Father
Colossians 3:21 explains the impact of father’s wounds on the life of children. “Dad, don’t promote your children, or they will be discouraged.”
Sadly, many children are hurt and injured by fathers, children and teens who grow into adults who are not merciless to their fathers, disappointments, bitters, resentment, and unforgiving fathers, children and teens, who are not merciless to their weaknesses and failures, carry around every day of their life and refuse to let it go. But we need to know that it is not okay to God, especially since Christians call us to forgive our father for their shortcomings, their lack, and yes, even sin against us.
It returns to accepting the God’s gift of our salvation. There, we experience forgiveness of our sins for every day of our lives. In other words, we waive and waive our right to hold sin against other people, including our father. By asking us to forgive our Father, God does not overlook their failures and sins, but gives us his presence in our lives as Heavenly Father. Psalm 68:5 explains how he promises to be “father of the father of the widow, the defender of the widow, and the God of His holy dwelling.”
As long as we hold our Father responsible for our sins against us, we hold God at arm length and limit him to being the father he wants us to. Our remission to our fathers interferes with the relationship between our father and child with God.
Letting go of the father’s failure
It is not okay to God to judge our Father for their sins, as we do, because he offers forgiveness to them. To truly enjoy God as Father, we must forgive him enough, clench him firmly with a clenched fist against his earthly Father, and hold him firmly by releasing all his anger, bitterness, resilience, and so on. When we do so, we receive more than we missed in life from our flawed human father. As Isaiah 41:13 explains, “For I will grab your right hand and be the Lord of your God who says to you. Do not fear; I will help you.”
As long as we embrace remission towards our father, our hands are too full to hold God’s hand. By forgiving our Father, we can grab our heavenly Father’s hand, and look to him to help us, to help us, to guide us in life. He gives us the support and strength we need to love and forgive our earthly Father through us despite their failures, frailty and sin. As 1 John 4:19 explains, “We love because he loved us first.”
Instead of our love for our fathers to be based on our experiences and lack of experience with them, we are free to follow God’s example of our beloved people, including our own father. Romans 5:8 states, “But God shows his own love for us in this: We were still sinners, but Christ died for us.”
Let’s pray:
Dear Father,
More than anyone else, even ourselves, you know the wounds and wounds we experienced in our earthly fathers. Still, you call us to forgive them and let go of the anger, pain and disappointment we carry along with us towards them. Lord, trust in you by liberating our hearts today, forgive our Father, and by holding your righteous hand and guiding life. We heal us from the deep wounds and wounds that we carry from their failures, flaws and sin. Fill us with your love and replace all the bitterness and resentment that has been embraced deep within our hearts towards our earthly Father. Help us flood our fathers because you filled us and you loved us first.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Photo Credit: ©GetTyimages/MonkeyBusinessImages
Lynette Kittle is married to four daughters. She enjoys writing about faith, marriage, parenting, relationships and life. Her writings have been published by Focus on the Family, Decision, Today’s Christian Woman, Kirkcameron.com, ungrind.org, startmarriageright.com and more. She holds a Masters degree in Communications from Regent University and is an associate producer at Soul Check TV.
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