ESOCS Devotional 5 August 2025 – Prayer and Forgiveness
MEMORY VERSE: ““And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any; that your father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” Mark 11: 25
TEXT: MARK 11:11–33
11 And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.
12 Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. 13 And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.”
And His disciples heard it.
15 So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 16 And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple. 17 Then He taught, saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”
18 And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching. 19 When evening had come, He went out of the city.
20 Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. 21 And Peter, remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.”
22 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
25 “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. 26 [a]But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
27 Then they came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Him. 28 And they said to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority to do these things?”
29 But Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one question; then answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things: 30 The baptism of John—was it from heaven or from men? Answer Me.”
31 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 32 But if we say, ‘From men’ ”—they feared the people, for all counted John to have been a prophet indeed. 33 So they answered and said to Jesus, “We do not know.”
And Jesus answered and said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
Read Other ESOCS Devotional Here
There exist a very strong connection between prayer and forgiveness. Nothing attacks the potency of prayer like the bitterness of heart: “… for out the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh” (Matt. 12: 34). When the heart is bitter, the words of prayer flowing from the mouth will be contaminated, hence lack the capacity to bring required sweet smelling savour to God. It must be said that all other things in place, the presence of bitterness is a major hindrance to answered prayers.
Now see the danger, non-forgiveness prevents God from forgiving your sins. Whereas God’s mercy and forgiveness provides a major pathway for the answers to our prayers, so the forgiveness and prayer chain is such that no child of God should take for granted. Our text strongly highlights the place of forgiveness any and every time we stand praying. It is therefore a necessity that before anyone approaches the place of prayer; proper personal examination should be carried out to confirm our forgiveness status with God and man.
Without mincing words, we need to forgive those that have offended us. You can’t hold grudge against them and comfortably stand in the place of prayer. It is true that they did the undoable, yes, what they did was very painful and portends some difficulty to forgive. But how long will you keep holding the grudge? How long will you allow your heart to be in pain because of what someone did and possibly the person is no longer in existence or has moved on with his or her life. Please forgive them today.
More so, forgive those you offended. Sometimes what you did to them was infinitesimal compared to the magnitude of their revenge. There are some, you have done everything possible to secure reconciliation but all efforts proved abortive and you have resorted to holding grudges against them. Please forgive them.
Most importantly, forgive yourself for every mistake you have ever made. Forgive yourself of the wrong steps and actions you took. Forgive yourself of the bad choice of words you spoke that is haunting you till date; forgive yourself of the missed opportunities by your carelessness and carefree attitude. Learn to genuinely forgive yourself; then, it will be easy to forgive others, so that your prayers can be answered.
CHALLENGES
- Sincerely forgive everyone that offended you as well as those you offended.
- Practically forgive yourself of all the mistakes of the past.
- Maintain a life of prayer with a pure heart.
PRAYER POINT
- Father thank you for the admonition. I ask that you forgive me my days of bitterness against myself and others and grant me the grace to live always as a forgiver, in Jesus name. Amen.
FURTHER READING: Nehemiah 2:1-End; Nahum 3:1-End; Mark 12:1-12
ESOCS Devotional 5 August 2025
