08/31/2026
Forgive Them
I am convinced that every children’s and youth program in my home church was started to do something with the Roberts boys.
There were three of us when we started attending church regularly. I was the oldest. Eventually, a fourth brother came along. We were there every Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night prayer meeting—with no program for children or youth except for the youngest ones, and that only on Sunday morning..
Dad sat on the right aisle. Mom sat beside him. Whichever brother was the most misbehaved during that particular service was moved next to Mom.
When we acted out, Mom would dig her fingernail into the thigh of the brother sitting next to her. I imagined it must have felt like nails being driven through the hands of Jesus. Yes, on occasion, that person was me.
All the while, Mom would smile at the preacher as he spoke and nod her head.
One night, my second-youngest brother took things to DEFCON 5. Mom picked Daniel up, carried him to the back in the middle of the service, and headed out the doors at the center aisle to give him a needed adjustment.
As they passed through the doors, I looked back to see Daniel with a look of panic on his face as mom pulled him through the opening. He grabbed one door with both hands, and yelled, “Pray for me!”
I don’t think my brother received his requested prayer that night. But at five years old, I think he learned something about desperate prayer.
There is a lot we could all still learn about prayer.
Jesus challenges us with His prayers. There are His intercessory prayers for His disciples and future followers in John 17, His all-night prayer, and His prayer in the garden the night before He was crucified where His sweat became like drops of blood. It is challenging enough just to master the Lord’s Prayer recorded in Matthew 6:9–13.
Recently, I realized Jesus taught us to pray a different Lord’s Prayer than the one He actually prayed Himself.
Don’t get me wrong. His prayers hollowed the Father’s name, surrendered to God’s will, acknowledged the daily bread God provided, and committed to following God’s leading away from evil.
But one element of the Lord’s Prayer was never part of Jesus’ recorded personal prayers: “Forgive us our debts.”
Of course, He preached, practiced, and undoubtedly prayed, “Forgive our debtors.”
We need to include in our prayers, “Forgive us our debts.” It is the corporate prayer asking God’s mercy for us—a fallen people, a church sometimes off mission, a divided country, a people who have forgotten our first love, and a world that continues to reject the Son of God.
But Jesus? He had no personal sin for which He needed forgiveness. Jesus was “tempted as we are, yet without sin.” —Hebrews 4:15
So how did He deal with a world of sin in His personal prayer?
We just happen to have that prayer recorded in Scripture.
As He was being nailed to the cross, Jesus prayed:
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
—Luke 23:34
The first Christian martyr after Jesus was Stephen. He learned to take his prayers beyond “Father, forgive us.” He learned to apply Jesus’ example of “Father, forgive them.”
As he was being stoned and dying, Stephen prayed:
“Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”
—Acts 7:60
We need to daily pray “Father, forgive us.”
But when we are wronged, even for a hurt we are carrying right now, we need to learn the special prayer of Jesus:
“Father, forgive them.”
That may be one of the hardest prayers we will ever pray.
It may also be one of the most Christlike.
Rejoicing in the forgiveness of Christ!
Randy Roberts
DHF Executive Director
[email protected]
