A Prayer for Forgiving  

by Grant Luton

Dear Father in Heaven,

I come before You now as one who desires a new beginning. You are my Creator and my Redeemer. You are the Lover of my soul. And I know that whenever I was being hurt by others, You were there beside me, experiencing the pain as well. When I was in tears, You were in tears too.

So now I choose to answer those who have mistreated me just as Messiah answered those who mistreated Him. I say, “Father, forgive them, because they did not know what they were doing.” In Your Word You say, “…for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” So Father, I too, will say the same. I will forgive their mistreatment of me, and their sin I will remember no more.

Those who hurt me were also in pain. They had been hurt just as I had been. They were victims, the same as I. But I choose now to stop this sin from causing further damage. I choose to embrace the pain that they inflicted upon me just as You embraced the pain I have inflicted upon You by my own sin. And I choose to forgive them just as You have forgiven me.

By forgiving those who have wronged me, I release them from any debt I feel they owe me. I leave them in Your hands so that You can heal and restore them just as You are healing and restoring me.

I have harbored bitterness and unforgiveness in my heart, and this has also caused pain to those who are closest to me. Please forgive me for holding on to these poisonous thoughts and emotions.

And whatever darkness I have invited into my life because of unforgiveness, I now reject and repent of. I claim the freedom that is now mine through the cleansing provided by my Savior Yeshua.

I renounce all feelings of unforgiveness.

I renounce all feelings of bitterness.

I renounce all feelings of resentment.

I renounce all feelings of anger.

I renounce all feelings of depression.

I renounce all feelings of despair.

I renounce any spirit of darkness that has attached itself to me through these poisonous emotions and say to it, “Be gone! Now and forever.”

And in its place, I invite Your holy spirit and the new life and freedom that it brings. I welcome and embrace Your grace.

I welcome and embrace Your patience.

I welcome and embrace Your love.

I welcome and embrace Your peace.

I welcome and embrace Your joy.

I welcome and embrace Your light.

I welcome You to live within me. Fill me completely with Yourself. I give myself completely to You as a living sacrifice. From this day forward, I choose to walk in Your paths, and according to Your holy Word.

And I sincerely ask You to bless those who have wronged me and to fully restore them to full fellowship with You so that in a day to come, we may rejoice before You together as friends who have been washed clean by Your love.

Until that day, I thank you for the happiness that is my inheritance as your beloved child. I know that You will never leave me and that You will never forsake me. Stretch my heart so that I may come to know just how much You love me so that I may love You in return as You deserve.

Father, I Thank You.