Daily Devotional – Saturday, August 15, 2026
And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you.
Mark 11:25 (NKJV)
Have you ever tried to have a serious conversation with someone while you were still upset about something they had done? You may be sitting right there, listening to them, but your mind keeps returning to what happened. You replay the words, remember the disappointment, and quietly build your case against them. Prayer can become like that too. We can kneel before God with our needs, our questions, and our requests while carrying resentment toward someone else. Jesus reminds us that what is happening in our hearts matters when we come before our Father.
Before You Ask
Our key text comes right after Jesus teaches His disciples about faith and prayer. He tells them to believe God and trust Him with what seems impossible. Then He brings their attention to something much closer to home: their relationships with other people. That is important. Jesus is not giving them a formula for getting whatever they want from God. He is showing them what a life of faith looks like. When we come to God in prayer, we cannot deliberately hold on to bitterness toward someone else while asking God to deal graciously with us. Jesus simply says, “Forgive him.”
Forgiving someone does not mean pretending that the offence never happened. It does not mean saying that what they did was acceptable or putting yourself back in a harmful situation. Sometimes wisdom requires boundaries, distance, or even appropriate action. Forgiveness does not mean we want to punish the person ourselves and leave it up to God. That can be a tough thing to do, especially when the wound is deep. We can carry the offence without saying a word and go on with our lives. We go to church, worship, serve, and pray, yet someone who hurt us still has a painful hold on our hearts.
When Prayer Meets Bitterness
Jesus then connects our willingness to forgive with the Father’s forgiveness of our own sins. He is not saying that we earn God’s forgiveness by forgiving other people. Scripture is clear that God’s forgiveness comes to us by His grace. Rather, our willingness to forgive shows whether we are truly living in the light of the mercy we have received. Think about it. We know what it’s like to need the mercy and forgiveness and patience of God. Such an understanding should make us more gentle with those who have hurt us. Forgiveness doesn’t come instantly, and the pain won’t disappear overnight, but we can choose to let go of the offence instead of nurturing it.
So when you kneel down to pray, take a moment and let God search your heart. Is there a name that still stirs anger, disappointment, and pain? Talk to God about that person honestly. Ask Him to help you forgive, give you wisdom for what to do next, and keep bitterness from taking root in you. You may not be able to change what happened, and you certainly cannot control what that person does next. What you can decide is whether you will continue to carry the offence. Before you bring your requests to God, consider what you are carrying in your heart.
Prayer
Father, search my heart and help me to release every offence I hold against others. Give me grace to forgive as You have forgiven me, and teach me to walk with a clean heart before You.
