1. _"And forgive us our trespasses,"_ thus the Lord teaches us to pray in the Fifth Petition. That means, as our Catechism explains these words: _"We pray in this petition that our Father would not look upon our sins."_ A child that has disobeyed his father approaches him sorrowfully, asks his forgiveness, and promises to be more obedient in future. We, the children of God, do the very same thing. Every day we come to our heavenly Father with a contrite heart and ask His _forgiveness._ Daily we confess that we have sinned again. We are deeply sorry that again we have been disobedient to His good will, that we have deserved His punishment. But we also know that God is _our gracious, loving Father,_ always willing to forgive us our many sins. We know that Christ has paid the _ransom for our transgressions_ and earned God's forgiveness for us. In our Savior's name, trusting in Him, we come to God every day and pray with deep shame, but also with firm confidence: My dear Father in heaven, I, a poor sinner, come to Thee and humbly confess that again I have trespassed and sinned against Thee. Do not look upon my sins, do not punish me as I have deserved, but regard Thy Son's righteousness and for His sake forgive me all my sins. We pray as did the prodigal son: _"Father, I have sinned against heaven and in Thy sight, and I am no more worthy to be called Thy son."_ Luke 15,21. However, accept me again for Christ's sake. 2. We have a _special reason_ for asking God's forgiveness in our prayers. We pray to God for many blessings, for many precious gifts, both heavenly and earthly. But we are sinners; _"we are worthy of none of the things for which we pray, neither have we deserved them."_ If God would look upon our unworthiness and sin, how could He grant us our petitions? _"For we daily sin much and deserve nothing but punishment."_ As long as our sins separate us from God, we are certain that God will not hear us. Our prayers would indeed be in vain. Therefore we pray to our Father that He would not look upon our sins, _"nor on their account deny our prayer,"_ as we have so well deserved. We pray that He would grant us His forgiveness and give us all His rich blessings _by grace, for Christ's sake._ In Christ's name we come to our Father and confidently pray with the _publican_ in the Temple: _"God be merciful to me, a sinner."_ Luke 18,13.