Over the past few weeks our pastorate has been looking at the Lord's prayer.

I love the fact that the prayer begins ‘Our Father…’ – the implication being that this prayer is for those who already have a relationship with God. 
Salvation is both a one-off event (I have been saved) and also an ongoing process (I am being saved).  The fact that the line ‘forgive us our sins’ is in this prayer shows that, whilst the problem of sin was dealt with by Jesus on the cross it can still affect our ongoing relationship with God.
Confession and forgiveness ensure that the effects of sin are continually dealt with.  However, I think there are two attitudes that can prevent us from asking for forgiveness.  The first is when we deny that we have done anything wrong.

David is a great example of this.  Appointed and anointed by God, David’s early life reads like a manual on being a man ‘after God’s own heart’.  Yet one wrong look in 2 Samuel 11 leads David into a spiral of adultery, deception and murder.  Interestingly David only acknowledges his guilt a year later – and only when forced to do so by the prophet Nathan.
We don’t know why David took so long to confess his sin.  Mark Buchanan speculates on David’s thoughts during the year,

‘A good part of [David’s thoughts] would consist of blaming: blaming Bathsheba for bathing naked in his view; blaming her husband, Uriah, for his failings as a husband, a warrior, a man; blaming his other wives for not understanding him, attending to him, satisfying him; blaming his courtiers for not safeguarding him and preoccupying him elsewhere.  He likely reviews the benefits of his deed: he feels attractive again, youthful.  He’s lost weight.  He’s finally married to the woman he should have married in the first place, the woman God had intended for him to marry.  She really understands me.  We have so much in common.  When I’m with her, I feel alive.’ (‘Your God is too safe’)
Whatever David’s reasons for refusing to acknowledge his sin, we know all too well how easy it is to try and deny, minimalise or even justify our sin.  As the prophet Jeremiah wrote, ‘The heart is deceitful above all things…’ (Jeremiah 17:9)

Yet denying our sin doesn’t make it go away.  The more sin is suppressed and ignored, the greater a barrier it becomes between us and God.  As David wrote, ‘When I kept silent, my bones wasted away…’ (Psalm 32:3)  It is only when we acknowledge our guilt that the barrier can be dealt with,
‘Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.  I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD” – and you forgave the guilt of my sin.’ (Psalm 32:5)


The second attitude that prevents us from seeking God's forgiveness is that we think God can't or won't forgive us.

‘We do not have to make God willing to forgive.  In fact, it is God who is working to make us willing to seek his forgiveness.’ – Richard Foster

One of the verses I most identify with is Romans 7:14 ‘… what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate I do.’  There are certain sins that I find myself committing time and time again, and each time I think, ‘Why on earth would God forgive me for this again?’ 

Similarly, there have been times when I have done things and I find myself asking, ‘Could God ever forgive me for this?’

I think such thoughts come because I have a wrong understanding of God’s character and the work of the cross:
a)     God’s character
When Jesus wanted to show his disciples God’s attitude towards forgiveness, he told them the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15).  My favourite part of the story is in verse 20, ‘But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him…’.  The father could only have seen the son if he had been looking for him. 
In the same way, God is looking and longing for us to come back to him. 

As Philip Yancey writes,
‘What blocks forgiveness is not God’s reticence, but ours.  God’s arms are always extended; we are the ones who turn away.’ 

b)     the work of the cross
Our sin had already been dealt with on the cross.  Jesus took our guilt so that we could be made right before God,
‘God has made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.’ (2 Corinthians 5:21) 

The divine exchange: we give our guilt and receive Christ’s innocence. 

Balthsar, the 20th century theologian wrote,
‘God’s infinite love for fallen man is the same as that of his son, who love for us was so great that he took our guilt upon himself in order to restore our relationship with the father.’

The character of God makes him longing to forgive, and the work of the cross makes it possible for him to forgive.
I love the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  One of the central characters is Aragon who, on first glance, appears to be nothing more than a homeless ranger.  Yet as the story develops it emerges that Aragon is in fact the rightful heir to the throne of Gondor.  He is a king who, haunted by the failure of his ancestor, chooses to live in self-imposed exile.   The turning point comes when he is confronted and told, ‘Put aside the Ranger.  Become who you were born to be.’All too often we also choose to live in self-imposed exile.  Through stubbornness, fear or doubt we fail to seek God’s forgiveness and, as a result, find ourselves living as people who refuse to become who we were born to be.The wonderful news is that God is desperate for us to return to him.

Yet despite knowing this, I still find myself living with guilt and shame.  I know that God is willing and able to forgive, and yet I often don’t feel forgiven.  Richard Foster writes,‘We have prayed, even begged for forgiveness, and though we hope we have been forgiven, we sense no release.  We doubt our forgiveness…  Eventually we begin to believe either that forgiveness is only a ticket to heaven and not meant to affect our lives now, or that we are not worthy of the forgiving grace of God.’ (Celebration of Discipline)

Clearly God did not intend for us to live like this.  As Jesus said, I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full.’ (John 10:10).  So how can we live in the fullness of God’s forgiveness? 

1.      take up the ‘sword of the spirit’

In Ephesians 6 Paul makes it very clear that we are engaged in a spiritual battle.  One of the ways that Satan often disables us as soldiers is through guilt and shame.  Out of the blue we are reminded of past sins and tormented with our own inadequacies and failures.  We seem to hear the words, ‘Remember what you did?  God could never really have forgiven you.  And if he did forgive you, he’ll never fully trust you again after you let him down so badly last time.’

Yet Satan is described as ‘the Father of lies’, and the only way to combat his lies is with the truth of God’s promises.  Here’s a few:

‘… if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.’ (1 John 1:9)‘… as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.’ (Psalm 104:12)
‘So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ.’
(Romans 8:1)

2.      practice the discipline of confession
‘Confess your sins to one another…’ (James 5:16)
For me, one of the most liberating moments in my spiritual life came when I confessed to a friend my ongoing battle with a particular sin.  I once read ‘You can only be fully loved if you are fully known’.  It was so amazing to realise that this person knew everything about me, and yet still loved me.    
In confessing our sins to another we are not saying that they have the ability to forgive sins – that is something only God can do.  What a confessor can do, however, is make God’s forgiveness a reality to us.  They can pray for us, encourage us and remind us of God’s promises regarding forgiveness.
So why did Jesus include the line ‘forgive us our sins’ in the Lord’s prayer?  I think it was for two reasons: Jesus knew that unconfessed sin prevents us from becoming all we are meant to be; and I think he also knew just how powerful a forgiven person can be.  Just look at Peter.  One moment he’s weeping bitterly having publicly denied any knowledge of Jesus, and the next he’s converting 3000 people.  The difference?  Peter had experienced forgiveness.  And so can we.