When You've Been Hurt and Don't Know How to Forgive

Have you been hurt deeply? I have. In Matthew 18 Jesus talks about the need for us to forgive the hurts we've suffered. 

Below is a prayer that I put together with the help of a friend who's suffered deep, deep trauma. 

If you've been hurt, maybe you could use the following prayer as a guide to help you experience the freedom Jesus longs to give you.

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Jesus, I'm coming to You because I know I need to forgive ______________.

I feel like I don't have anything to bring except all this sadness, anger, and shame from being hurt. Jesus, I know living with all of this pain steals Your glory and hinders my joy.

I know that can't forgive on my own. I don't have the grace in me to forgive on my own.

So, I am bringing the hurt to You and laying it all at Your feet. Your Word says I must forgive the ones who have hurt me. So, I here and now make the decision to do it. By faith, I choose to obey You by forgiving those who have hurt me.

I entrust the ones who have hurt me to You. You can handle the justice. Give me the strength to give this all to You and rest in the fact that You will make these wrongs right one day.

Please heal me from the inside out. I want to let go of this. I don't want this to consume me anymore. Change my heart, O God. Set me free from the prison of bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness.

Help me to learn to live by faith and not by my feelings. Jesus, You forgave me a huge debt that I could never have repaid by dying on the cross for me. And I know that those who have hurt me do not owe me as much as I owe You. No matter how much someone has sinned against me, it doesn’t compare with how I sinned against You.

Because I have been forgiven of such a great debt by Christ, by faith I now choose to forgive ____________________ unconditionally in Christ.

I know that I do not have the power to forgive this way. So, I am here and now trusting You, Jesus, to forgive through me. Give me the supernatural ability to give to others the same grace and mercy that You have given me. I release to You those who have hurt me. They are no longer accountable to me for those hurts. I put ____________________ in your hands because You are the only One who can handle justice righteously.

Thank you Lord, for loving me and forgiving me. Thank You for supernaturally enabling me to forgive by the power of Your Holy Spirit. And thank You, Jesus, for setting me free.

I love you, Lord, and I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.