Forgiveness

Lord, help me to be a forgiving person. Show me where I am not. Expose the recesses of my soul so I won't be locked up by unforgiveness and jeapordize my future. If I have any anger, bitterness, resentment, or unforgiveness that I am not recognizing, reveal it to me and I will confess it to you as sin.

Specifically I ask you to help me full forgive myself. Make me to understand the depth of your forgiveness and assist me so that I do not hold back forgiveness from others.I realize that forgiving others doesn't make them right; it makes me free. I also realize that you are the only one who knows the whole story and you will see justice done.

Help me to forgive myself for the times I have failed. And if I have blamed you for things that have happened in my life, show me so I can confess it before you. Enable me to love my enemy's as you have commanded in your word. Teach me to bless those who curse and persecute me. (Matthew 5:44-45) Remind me to pray for those who hurt or offend me so that my heart will be soft towards them. I don't want to become hard and bitter because of unforgiveness.

Make me a person who is quick to forgive.Lord, show me if I have any unforgiveness toward my mother or father for anything they did or did not do. I don't want to shorten my life by not honoring them and breaking this great commandment. And where there is distance between me and any other family member because of unforgiveness, I pray that you would break down that wall. Help me to forgive every time I need to do so. Where I can be and instrument of reconciliation between other family members who have a broken or strained relationship, enable me to do that.I don't want anything to come between you and me Lord, and I don't want my prayers to become hindered because I have entertained sin in my heart. I choose this day to forgive everyone and everything, and walk free from the death that unforgiveness brings.If any person has unforgiveness toward me, I pray you would soften there heart to forgive me and show me what I can do to help resolve this issue between us. I know that I cannot be a light to others as lonf as I am walking in the darkness of unforgiveness. I choose to walk in the light as you are in the light and be cleansed from all sin. (1 John 1:7)In your name I pray ~Amen~

I have really been dealing with the power that unforgiveness brings and the way it has hindered my life as well as my walk with God. Oddly enough the hardest person to forgive has been myself. We ask God for forgiveness and yet we still hold on to our own sin. We allow our choices to build up and use guilt as a tool to keep us away from the presence of God.

"Put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and...put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness." Ephesians 4:22-24It's a very difficult task, forgiveness but what an awesome release when we have perfected it. Anyway-I just wanted to share in case someone reading may be dealing with the same.