Next, we ask God to provide our daily bread. Our earthly needs are supplied by the kindness of our heavenly Father.


“forgive us”
 

This verse teaches that our past sins have been forgiven and that we should pray fervently for grace so that we are prevented from repeating the same sins again. Grace teaches us not to sin. We cannot ask for forgiveness from God unless we truly desire to abstain from sin.

“Our sins are forgiven through the mediation of the Son and we are preserved from temptation and delivered from evil by the gracious operations of the Holy Spirit.” (Arthur W. Pink, An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, Baker Book House, 1975)

Forgiveness is not a turnstile. We cannot continue in our sin as though we were just going in circles. An example of this could be, “Please forgive me,” and then keep going in the same circle, repeating the same pattern, practice, or habit…and then asking again, “Please forgive me, please forgive me.”

In order to receive forgiveness we must repent (stop, turn around, or do a 180-degree turn and go the opposite direction). Grace enables us to come to our senses. We truly begin to understand our freedom in Christ. Because of this revelation, we begin to be repulsed by the practice of the sins in our lives. We begin to mourn over them and the consequences that transpire in the lives of others, as well as our own. We ask for the guilt and shame caused by the sin to be removed from us. It is here that we ask for His holy power to be working in us and the ability to walk in that deliverance.