"Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. And when ye stand praying, forgive.”

It was not an uncommon sight [in those days] to see people standing and praying in the temple. This was regarded by the people of the time as a sign of piety. The Pharisees, most pious of the Jews [made a show of their devotion] that they might attract attention and be seen [by others] to pray. They loved to stand in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, uttering long prayers. They lived for that outer world where people see, people judge, and people reward. They knew little of the inner essence of prayer, and the doctrine of forgiveness was unknown to them. 

 The Lord spoke a parable concerning this kind of prayer.  A parable designed to bring into sharp contrast the two worlds,-the world that we see, and the world that God knows. "Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God I thank You that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but beat upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner." (Luke 18:10-13.) 

 It is not the outward gesture of the body that has communication with heaven, but the internal state of the mind. The Lord, therefore, instituting a new kind of prayer with His disciples, said: "When ye stand praying, forgive." The only prayer that is heard in heaven is the prayer that proceeds from a forgiving heart. 

It is the forgiving heart that qualifies all external worship. It is the forgiving heart that brings forgiveness to the sinner; it is the forgiving heart that converts the hollow sham of merely external worship into an eternal blessing. Unless we have in our heart forgiveness toward our fellow man, we cannot utter any real prayer to God. This is what the Lord meant when He said: "If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has ought against you, leave there your gift before the altar, and go your way.  First be reconciled…and then come and offer your gift." (Matthew 5:23, 24.) 

In the story of Joseph forgiving his brothers the wrongs they had done him, [he] said: "Fear not; for am I in the place of God! But as for you, you thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring it to pass, as it is this day, to save many people alive." Joseph forgave because he recognized the Divine Providence in the evil which they had brought upon him. 

Does not this furnish a clue to the understanding of all forgiveness on our part for our fellow man? So far as we are concerned, no evil from without can befall us that is not of the permission of Divine Providence. It may seem like a cruel blow at the time; it may appear to be our undoing; and we may be filled with hatred and revenge toward the perpetrator. 

Yet the truth is, if we can see it, that no evil ever happens to us that is not overruled for our eternal salvation. Our attitude toward those who wrong us must be like that of Joseph toward his brothers. We may recognize that they did it with malignity of purpose; they meant it for evil, "but God meant it unto good, to save many people alive".  That is, by calling for the exercise of forgiveness, we enlarge the inner recesses of our souls, that we might be more nearly and closely conjoined with God. (Karl Alden, 1930 - EDM Edit)