Praying Scripture: Prayer for Forgiveness and Healing

-

(Newly added, April 2022) 

Prayer for Forgiveness and Healing:

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Psalm 32:5: “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.  I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’ – and you forgave the guilt of my sin.”

Acts 3:19: “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”

Psalm 103:11-12: “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

Romans 3:22-24: “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.”

2 Corinthians 5:17: “… if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.”

Romans 8:1: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…”

Matthew 6:14-15: “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

Luke 6:27: “… Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”

 

          Lord, I know that sin affects my eternity and my relationship with You, with myself, and with others.  And in order to have the best life possible, in eternity and on earth, I need Your forgiveness for my sins and I need to forgive others for their sins against me, as You have forgiven me. 

          Lord, I thank You that Jesus died for my sins on the cross so that I could be saved from hell and go to heaven.  I thank You for Your promise to forgive my sins if I confess them to You.  I want to be forgiven.  I want to be cleansed from my sins and to experience the healing and times of refreshing that You promise.  And so right now, I confess my sins to You.  (Specifically confess any known sins to God right now.)  Reveal to me any sins that I am hiding or that I have forgotten but that I need to confess to You.  (Take some time to listen for His answer throughout the week.  When He reveals any, confess them.)  I thank You, Lord, that You paid for all these sins on the cross.  They are already forgiven.  And we don’t have to earn or work for Your forgiveness.  In fact, no one can earn Your forgiveness.  All we have to do, all we can do, is reach out and accept it as the free gift it is.  If I have made You my Lord and Savior, I don’t have to pay for my sins eternally or be beaten down by them on earth anymore. 

          [If you haven’t yet accepted Jesus as Lord as Savior, do so now with a prayer that’s as simple as “Lord, I admit that I am a sinner and I can’t save myself.  I need You.  Thank You for dying for my sins so that I could go to heaven and for rising again to prove You are God.  I accept Your sacrifice for my sins right now.  Forgive me and cleanse me.  I am putting my faith in You right now and choosing You as my Lord and Savior.  And I want to live the rest of my life for You.  Help me do that.  Make me who You want me to be.  Thank You for Your amazing grace, mercy, and love.  In Jesus’s name, Amen.”] 

          Lord, I thank You that You have made me a new creation, that You have taken the old away, removing my sins as far as the east is from the west.  I thank You that even though I may still have to face the consequences of my sins on earth, You are with me and will help me face it.  I thank You that I am not condemned for my sins anymore in Your eyes because of what You did for me on the cross.  Because of Jesus’s death, You now see me as righteous.  He took my sins away.  Help me to live in gratitude for that precious truth, for Jesus’s amazing sacrifice. 

          But Lord, even though I know this is the truth, I still sometimes feel ashamed and guilty.  And I know this is from the enemy, the one who wants to hurt me, to make me ashamed, and to ruin my relationship with You and my future.  In the name of Jesus, I resist the devil and his attempts to hurt me, to make me feel ashamed, unforgiven, hopeless, helpless, or unloved.  (“Submit yourself, then, to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.  Come near to God and He will come near to you.” James 4:7-8) 

          I am a child of Yours, Lord.  You love me.  You are my hope and my help.  You forgave my sins.  I matter to You just because I am Yours.  And since I am Your child, the devil doesn’t have any power over me anymore, other than the power I let him have when I give in to him, his lies, and to sin.  But right now, I am confessing my sins to You and drawing near to You.  I am resisting the devil’s lies, in Jesus’s name.  And according to Your Word, the devil has to flee.  Greater is the Holy Spirit who is in me than the devil who is in the world (1 John 4:4).  Thank You, Lord, for Your presence, power, and help.  Thank You for Your victory over evil.  Help me to understand what it truly means to be a child of God, how I should live in this world and do battle in the spiritual world. 

          Lord, I will trust You when You say that You forgave my sins, that You love me, that You made me a new creation, that You do not condemn me anymore, and that I am righteous in Your eyes because of what Jesus did for me.  Please, Lord, surround me with Your heavenly angels to keep the enemy away.  Surround me with Your truth and Your healing love, to help me to feel the forgiveness and love and grace and mercy that You pour out on me. 

          Lord, I know that part of living as Your child is forgiving other people for what they did to me.  If we want Your forgiveness, we have to forgive others.  This is going to be hard for me, Lord, so please help me do it.  You don’t say that we have to feel like forgiving them or that we have to want to forgive them; You just say that we have to do it.  And so even if I don’t feel like forgiving them, I’m going to do it anyway.  Just because You said I have to.  After all, if You died on the cross to forgive me for what I did wrong, then surely I can forgive others for what they did wrong. 

          And so right now, I am going to forgive other people for what they did to me.  (Name each person you’re forgiving and what you’re forgiving them for.  Tell the Lord that you forgive that person and won’t hold their offenses against them anymore.  Ask Him to give you a tender heart for them, to help you see them and love them as He does, even if you never see them anymore or have to stay away from them.  It’s okay if you have to love someone from a distance.)

          Lord, I put these people and the hurts they caused me in Your hands right now.  Forgive me for the bitterness I’ve had towards them, for the anger that kept me prisoner, and for the things I’ve done in revenge for what they did.  I give up my “right” to hold their sins against them anymore.  I give up the bitterness I feel and the desire for revenge.  I trust You to deal justly with their sins, in Your time and in Your way.  But, please, heal the hurt they caused me and the heart-wounds they’ve given me.  Turn it into something good, for Your glory and Your purposes and my future. 

          In fact, You even say that we should pray for those who mistreat us.  And so right now I pray for the people who hurt me.  I pray that You would guide them to You, meet their needs, and help them find healing too.  (Pray for each individual person by name, if you can.) 

          And help me, Lord, to live in forgiveness from here on out, in the forgiveness I gave others and in the forgiveness You gave me.  Help me to see those other people the way You see them and to see myself the way You see me.  Help me to feel for them what You feel for them.  Help me to understand how You feel about me.  Help me to remember that I am Your child, that I am forgiven, that I am loved, and that You have a future full of hope and purpose planned for me.  And even if it’s not the future I thought it would be, You can still make it into something good and useful for Your kingdom.  Help me learn to follow as You lead me. 

          Lord, I know I will continue to stumble, and so I ask You to help keep my heart sensitive to anything I need to confess to You in the future, to anyone I need to seek forgiveness from, or to anyone else I need to forgive.  Thank You that You always forgive us when we confess our sins to You and that You will always comfort us and restore our souls when we cry out to You, no matter what we do.  Fill me with the hope and peace and healing that is found in You alone.  Thank You for Your amazing grace.  Because of what You have done for me, I can be whole and healed and live a meaningful life for You.  Help me to do that.  Make me the person You want me to be.  And help me to share Your grace, love, and truth with others who need it too. 

          In Jesus’s name, Amen



Most Popular Posts of the Week:

Alana L.: 2e (sufficient/efficient)

-
Image
This series is based on this 14-minute video from Alana L.:   5 Signs Your Loved One is Becoming a Calvinist    Point #2:   E.  Alana then pointed out how Calvinists say that Jesus's work on the cross was "sufficient for all of humanity, but it's not efficient [for all]."   It's only "efficient" for some, for the elect. I love it when she said this about "sufficient and efficient": "Okay, huh, new words, not in Scripture."  Priceless!   I think these bogus terms - which are  not  in the Bible - are merely a way for Calvinists to sound like they're saying one thing when they really mean another, to sound like they're saying Jesus died for all when they're really not.  They know that  if they outright said Jesus didn't die for all, it would contradict certain verses and set off people's alarm bells - and so they speak on multiple levels to obscure what they're teaching, to buy them time to slowly, strategically m...
Read more

She hit the nail on the head! Amen, come, Lord Jesus!

-
A neighbor just sent this link to me , a video clip (just a minute long) from a woman sharing how she is just done with everything, how she's on autopilot and just wants Jesus to come back again. I absolutely get everything she said and have felt the same way for several years now. Can anyone else relate? Here's a transcript of what she said (I think she voiced what a lot of us have been feeling, like we've been treading water, just trying to get by until the end):  "Does anybody else just ... I'm just, like, checked out of this planet.  I told God today, like, I'm ready.  I've been ready, but I'm like  ready ready.  I don't feel like there's anything that I care about anymore.  I just want to go home.  You know, I just want to be done.   I don't want to battle all of the little battles anymore.  I don't want to pay my taxes anymore - because I know where the money's going.  I don't want to go to the grocery store and spend $40...
Read more

List of Calvinist Preachers, Authors, Theologians, Websites, etc.

-
I  found a lot more names to add to my list of known Calvinists (found in my various  "How to Tell if a Church, Pastor, or Website is Calvinist"  posts).  But instead of adding this huge list to all those posts, I am going to put it here, and I'll just provide a link on those posts to this one.  [FYI: I added a note at the bottom of this post on May 5, 2021.] So here it is, a "master list" of known Calvinists to help you be careful and discerning about who you listen to and where you get your theology from.  There are plenty more Calvinists out there, but these are just the names that I ran across the most.   These are either definite, self-professed Calvinists or "most likely Calvinist," in my estimation.  (I haven't heard of most of them, but it's good to know their theology before I do.)   After finding these names in various places online, I looked up each person to see if they are Calvinist.  If they did not self-identify ...
Read more

Carman Understands the Spiritual Battle

-
With all the talk of spiritual warfare and demonic harassment in the last few posts (Christian testimonies), I thought I'd repost some songs from Carman.  Older Christians will know who I'm talking about and might enjoy this blast from the past.  And newer Christians might enjoy "meeting" him for the first time. Yes, these are a bit campy, but they are fun and full of truth.  And I think today's Christians could benefit from the spiritual wisdom of older believers like Carman - believers who understand the spiritual battle and how demons work and how Christians are supposed to fight evil.  We've lost the knowledge of this over the years as Christians have increasingly viewed demons as legends, as mythical creatures who are way "out there" somewhere in the universe, instead of as powerful, living, active beings who are watching us, interfering with us, and attacking our minds and lives daily.   If we ignore the enemy, we can't fight him.  If we do...
Read more

Why Is It So Hard For Calvinists To Get Free From Calvinism?

-
This was originally on the end of my post "If Calvinism is true, then God is a liar."   But I think it deserves its own post (I recently updated it a little bit, March 2021): I read something once about how very few people end up freeing themselves from the clutches of Calvinism because of the strong hold it has on people.  I think this is partly because ... 1.   We (I am talking as if I were a Calvinist here) would have to admit that we were misunderstanding Scripture this whole time, and no one wants to admit they could be wrong. 2.   Calvinism appeals to us prideful intellectuals.  (And prideful intellectuals have the greatest aversion to admitting we could be wrong.)  It makes us feel special, like we alone understand the "deeper, hidden meanings of Scripture," while the simple-minded Christians can't understand it.  Calvinism (with all of its contradictions, word play, round-about reasoning, and multiple layers of meaning for verses) gives u...
Read more

"But predestination!" (16B: sin, evil, suffering)

-
Image
In this series, I'm examining some things that Calvinists (especially my ex-pastor) say about predestination.   Here's the posts in the whole series:  the pastor's sermons  ("When Calvinists say 'But predestination!'"), and my comments  1-4 (election)  and  5-6 (Romans and sovereignty)  and  7-9 (depravity, Book of Life, predestine)  and  10-11 (shaming tactics, Feb. 2015)  and  12-14 (dead, regeneration, born again)  and  15 (total depravity, manipulation)   and  16A (God's Will, babies)  and  16B (sin, evil, suffering)  and  17 (double-speak and the gospel) . For the shorter "for everyone" version which has a lot less quotes and a lot less of my thoughts,  click here . Sixteen B (I broke #16 up into two halves, so picking up where we left off in the last post...) And now, moving on from the bulk of my comments to the bulk of the Calvinist quotes, showing you Calvinism in its ...
Read more

This One's For You! (A Christmas Sermon)

-
Did you ever listen to a sermon where you felt as if God was saying "This one's for you"?  I've never looked up Willow Creek sermons before, but for some reason I decided to watch one yesterday.  And you know what?  This one was meant for me.  It really hit me in the heart.  Watch it; it's good.  In fact, I couldn't stop thinking about it all day and into the night.  (Skip to the 35-minute mark to start the sermon.) "Christmas at the movies: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (December 18, 2022)" (Willow Creek Huntley YouTube channel) Merry Christmas, Everyone! [FYI: I've written before about how I disagree with woman being head pastors.  And it seems that, at Willow, the head pastor is a man but there are several teaching pastors under him, including women.  To me, that's a gray area.  And I'm not sure yet what I think of it.  But  since it doesn't break my hardline, definitive "no woman head pastor" rule , I've decided to ...
Read more

Rapinoe Really Bugs Me. Why?

-
Rapinoe really bugs me.  Even just looking at pictures of her bug me. Why? This article neatly sums it up: her arrogance. The arrogant, in-your-face, I'm-the-best, bite-the-hand-that-feeds-you attitude that oozes from her, even in pictures. I think those who hate America so much should just leave.  They should go spend some time in countries where you have almost no rights.  Where women are forced to cover from head to toe.  Where they can't drive.  Where acid is thrown on them when they offend some man.  Where homosexuals are executed.  Where you don't get to vote for your leaders.  Where you are not allowed to speak out in the media.  Where you are prosecuted for saying anything against your country or leader. Go visit those countries for awhile ... and see if you don't come crawling back on your hands and knees, begging America to let you back in again, kissing the ground of the country that treated you so well....
Read more

On this Good Friday

-
Take some time on this Good Friday to remember what Jesus went through to bring us forgiveness, to offer us all eternal life - and then thank Him for it.   Some great songs and videos about it: Jeremy Riddle's  "Sweetly Broken"   Cloverton's  "Christmas Hallelujah" Michael W. Smith's  "Secret Ambition" Crowder's  "I AM" "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood." ( Romans 3:23-25 ) “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life   in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  ( Romans 6:23 ) “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”   ( Romans 5:8 ) "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us...."  ( 1 John 3:16 ) "Christ suffered for you... When ...
Read more

Okay, One More ...

-
(Update September 2021: I'll be adding new random posts over at my other blog, https://heathersgardenandhome.blogspot.com .  And I'll have new ones about Calvinism until the end of 2021 at  https://anticalvinistrant.blogspot.com .) Dedicated to all my brothers and sisters in Christ, the faithful few, in these crazy, uncertain times:   Eyes on the Prize   (from the movie Greencard) Listen to the words.  Hear the message.  And hang in there.  It's gonna be okay. Psalm 121:1-2 : “I lift up my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from?  My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” Joshua 1:9 : “Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Deuteronomy 31:8:  “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.  Do not be afraid; ...
Read more