Forgive we must. But how difficult forgiving can be! Often it seems easier to forgive strangers or even enemies than close friends. As the Psalmist puts it: "For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; . . . but it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance." 1
Yet we ask God's forgiveness. We do every time we pray the Lord's Prayer: "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" 2—or as The New English Bible translates it, "Forgive us the wrong we have done, as we have forgiven those who have wronged us."
Sometimes we forget the condition for forgiveness: we earn forgiveness as we forgive others.
