THE SONG OF PRAYER

Prayer, Forgiveness, Healing

III. Forgiveness-for-Salvation

1. Forgiveness-for-salvation has one form, and only one. It does not ask for proof of innocence, nor pay of any kind. It does not set you above your brother in arrogance, condescending to help him who is not as advanced as you. It does not require you to be equal in the sin which you are forgiving. It does not require you to be a martyr, bearing with patience the anger and hurt another gives. It does not argue, nor evaluate the errors that it wants to overlook. It does not offer gifts in treachery (bargaining, compromising), nor promise freedom while it asks for bondage. These are not the forms forgiveness-for-salvation takes.

Would God deceive you? He but asks for trust and willingness to learn how to be free. He gives His Teacher to whoever asks, and seeks to understand the Will of God. His readiness to give lies far beyond your understanding and your simple grasp. Yet He has willed you learn the way to Him, and in His willing there is certainty.

2. You child of God, the gifts of God are yours, not by your plans but by His holy Will. His Voice will teach you what forgiveness is, and how to give it as He wills it be. Do not, then, seek to understand what is beyond you yet, but let it be a way to draw you up to where the eyes of Christ become the vision you choose. As you rise in the ladder of prayer, you will also rise in understanding forgiveness.

Give up all else but Christ’s vision, for there is nothing else. When someone calls for help in any form, Christ is the One to answer for you. All that you need do is to step back and not to interfere. Forgiveness-for-salvation is His task, and it is He Who will respond for you. Listen for His Voice. Therefore the one form that forgiveness-for-salvation takes is for you to step back and let Him answer for you. That is all. Nothing else. Anything else is interference. And interference given to your brother is interference given to yourself. It will block the truth for you both. So “at ease,” brother. And as you step back, fill your heart and mind with trust and willingness to learn how to be free, to learn what to hear and what to say. Seek to understand the Will of God thus. It is His Will that you understand It also, and His Will will be done, in Heaven and on earth.

3. Do not establish what the form should be that Christ’s forgiveness takes. He knows the way to make of every call a help to you, as you arise in haste to go at last unto your Father’s house. Now can your footsteps be sure and your words sincere; not with your own sincerity, but with His Own. Indeed, it is difficult for you to be sincere of your own self, when you do not know all the facets of any situation in which a brother comes to call. You do not know what help He will be able to give your brother or yourself in any situation. So let Him take charge of how you would forgive, and each occasion then will be to you both another step to Heaven and to peace.

4. Are you not weary of imprisonment? God did not choose this sorry path for you. What you have chosen still can be undone, for prayer is merciful and God is just. His is a justice He can understand, but you cannot as yet. Justice on earth is but a reflection of justice in Heaven. Still will He give the means to you to learn of Him, and know at last that condemnation is not real and only makes illusions in its name.

And yet it does not matter what forms dreams may seem to take. Illusions are untrue. God’s Will is truth, and you are one with Him in Will and purpose. At the top of the ladder, when joined with God, all dreams are done. Therefore, when praying, forget to ask for things or for anything that will last but for an instant’s duration. Always begin with “What is your Will for me, my Father?”

5. “Father, what should I do for him, my brother, Your holy Son?” should be the only thing you ever ask when help is needed and forgiveness sought. You need not judge the form the seeking takes. And let it not be you who sets the form in which forgiveness comes to save God’s Son. The light of Christ in him is his release, and it is this that answers his call.

Forgive your brother as the Christ decides you should, and be His eyes through which you look on your brother, and speak for Him as well. He knows the need; the question and the answer. He will say exactly what you must do, in words that you can understand and you can also use. Do not confuse His function with your own. He is the Answer. You are the one who hears the Answer and transmits it.

6. And what is it He speaks to you about? About salvation and the gift of peace. About the end of sin and guilt and death. About the role forgiveness has in Him. These are sweet, kind, comforting words that bring peace and understanding, that draw your mind away from the upheavals of this world for an instant. Just listen. For He will be heard by anyone who calls upon His Name, and places his forgiveness in His Hands.

Forgiveness has been given Him to teach, to save it from destruction and to make it the means for undoing separation, sin and death, becoming again the holy gift of God. Direct your mind to follow His use for it. Use it for prayer, for seeking to understand His Will. Prayer is His Own right Hand, made free to save as true forgiveness is allowed to come from His eternal vigilance and Love. Listen and learn, and do not judge. It is to God you turn to hear what you should do. His answer will be clear as morning, nor is His forgiveness what you think it is. What is forgiveness, Father? What is salvation? Who are You and who am I – in truth? Ask these questions. Listen to the Answers.

7. Still does He know, and that should be enough. Forgiveness has a Teacher Who will fail in nothing. Rest a while in this; do not attempt to judge forgiveness, nor to set it in an earthly frame. Let it arise to Christ, Who welcomes it as a gift to Him. He will not leave you comfortless, nor fail to send His angels down to answer you in His Own Name.

Jesus stands beside the door to which forgiveness is the only key. Give it to Him to use instead of you, and you will see the door swing silently open upon the shining face of Christ. Behold your brother there beyond the door; the Son of God as He created him.  Amen.