Forgive us our debts

In each article, I have been walking through the Lord's Prayer phrase by phrase. Rather than a rote prayer, the Lord's Prayer is an outline of how we can learn how to pray, on our own, following the example of Jesus Christ.

Matthew 6:12 directs us to our need for forgiveness and our need to forgive others, "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." Prayer flows out of a relationship with our Father in heaven. This relationship has been established because of Jesus Christ, and what Jesus accomplished on the cross.

The Lord's Prayer assumes that the one praying has put their f...