WHY SHOULD WE FORGIVE IN PRAYERS?

In the reading today, Jesus teaches us the famous Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:7-15)
First of all, Jesus warns us not to heap up empty phrases in prayer. That makes sense. He then tells us the our heavenly Father knows even before we pray. That makes sense because God is all-knowing. Naturally, we may ask why then we should pray at all. The Father knows everything, even the exact words we are going to utter. Why bother praying? Obviously, prayer is more than telling God our needs. Rather, I would say prayer is an exercise of self-knowledge.

Prayer is an exercise of lifting up our souls towards God. It is an exercise because it takes efforts. Most of the time during the day, we are occupied with a lot of other things. Our focus lies elsewhere. We are not aware of the whereabouts of God even though He is always around. In prayer, we turn our attention towards God at long last.
In lifting up our souls towards God, we will be illuminated. We see and understand ourselves better. In our daily life, we have a lot of wants and needs and are overwhelmed and confused. Therefore, we may want things we actually do not need and our desperate needs, we don't want. It is contradictory, isn't it? But this is a fact of life when we are awake. In prayer, we turn to God our Creator who knows all. He will illuminate our souls so that we can see our wants and needs clearly. That is why, prayer is an exercise of self-knowledge.

There are seven petitions in the Lord's Prayer. One of them is to seek God to forgive us. But why does Jesus focus on only this one after teaching us the prayer? Why is forgiveness such an important element in our prayers? I think it is because anger clouds our perception and judgment of the world and ourselves. When we are wronged, we feel victimized and angry. We become angry and naturally seek revenge. Anger hurts. In anger, our judgment will be flawed and our perception will be blinded. Therefore, it is most important to remove anger, to forgive the perpetrators. When we forgive, we ourselves are freed and God's mercy may descend on us. When we remain angry, we do not allow others to come close to us, not even God. Then God is not able to shower His mercy on us. Therefore, for our own sake, forgive.

Merciful Lord, I am will to forgive and to free myself. Forgive me for I am weak. I am a sinner. Amen.