One of the hardest prayers for me to say is a prayer for forgiveness. Most prayers of this type simply ask God to forgive me for something I have done.
Another type is for me to ask him to bless a particular person so that they will forgive something I have done to them. That is hard enough, admitting I have hurt someone. Even if I did it accidentally, it still happened and that person was still wronged and I still need them to forgive me. It’s possible, even probable, that I will never know they have forgiven me. But I still pray for it.
There is another kind of prayer for forgiveness. It’s a prayer for the ability to forgive something someone has done to me. That is the hard one. All too often, I just do not want to forgive. That means I can no longer nurse the hurt. I no longer have an excuse to feel sorry for myself about what was done to me. Just saying “I forgive you” doesn’t always make it so. Not deep inside, anyway. So, I pray for that grace. If I pray often enough, I begin to soften inside, and sometimes I can manage true forgiveness. The oftener, the better.
Father, I need to free my heart by forgiving this person in my life. Help me, please, to gently do that and let go.
No comments:
Post a Comment